He Liked the Photo at One
my brother liked mom's photo at 1am. that's how i know he's awake too. we don't talk anymore.
my brother liked the photo my mom posted of the three of us. liked it. a thumbs up at 1am from four states away. we don't talk anymore, not a fight, nothing you could point at, just a slow thing, and now this is how i know he's awake too. we both float around the family group chat reacting to mom's stuff, her garden, the casserole, never to each other, two ghosts thumbing the same posts.
i typed you up and deleted it. typed it again. i used to share a wall with this person. we had a knock system, two for you awake, three for come here something's wrong. i could knock on the wall right now and there's just the kitchen, the fridge doing its hum, mom's dish towels he wouldn't recognize because she redid the kitchen after he left and never told him because he didn't ask. he liked the photo. i'm looking at the same photo. it's the closest we've stood in two years and we're in different time zones doing it.
Did this one stay with you?
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