Christian Bardin

“You deserve strings that can go the distance. Only D’Addario strings are sealed inside and out to ensure high performance. …The result is consistent, long-lasting tone with excellent intonation.”

Phosphor Bronze

I brush my teeth before sitting down to map out what I don’t want to forget

At the table from Jenny who didn’t need it anymore

Where we had Thanksgiving dinner last year

When you shared our relationship for the second time on social media with a picture that said

so full

Two intangible times when you were not afraid to share me, to share you with me.

Near the spot on the floor where on the night before my 30th birthday we burned every year

I’d been alive so far and every numerical age too, one by one by one, 29 times times two.

You told me you were so glad I was alive, and embraced me while I cried,

(I was so afraid to keep starting a new life)

and held me gently by washing the dishes I had heaped in two piles

Until we purified my past, on the living room floor, with fire

Smoke pluming in the house wrapping us in the dissipating exhalation of what came before now

remnants of 16 and 1995 and 23 and 7 and 2018 unseen but sticking to our clothes, our hair

the insides of our mouths, unseen but the smell sticks

Matter cannot be created or destroyed.

(I am so afraid to keep starting a new life)

You were the only one who showed up to what was supposed to be a party, and you brought

champagne.

I brush my teeth

before sitting down to map out what I don’t want to forget

Monday we will speak for the first time in a month

I want my mouth to be clean then too

Toothbrush at work, unbelievably vibrating right next to my brain

I think restringing a guitar will be a better use of my time.

The satisfaction in making a change that can be seen

Wishing for replacement

for affirming bright phosphor bronze to shine

Strung, by hand

Where your hands once were

(The front porch where you heard so many songs for the first time)

Giving new voice to a worn instrument

A Near each other

E Winding up and down and around paths together

D Sounded together and apart

G Delicate healthy tension

B Strong materials made supple

E Softening over time

You lent it to me Two houses ago Before Cam and Sam tried without success and then kept trying and then got pregnant and Hello beautiful beautiful Marion Kumar Lee Bailey

Two houses ago You lent it to me For an indeterminate amount of time Full of your music Full of you

Phosphor bronze renewed voicePhosphor bronze renewed union

Can we

Keep seeing

Restring