“Dear Concerned Estranged” a poem by Rob MacWolf (read by Madison Scott-Clary)

Speaker: 00:00:00

You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.

Speaker: 00:00:02

And today’s poem

Speaker: 00:00:03

is Rob MacWolf,

Speaker: 00:00:05

who never thought making jokes about Magic the Gathering would get him here,

Speaker: 00:00:09

called “Dear Concerned Estranged”,

Speaker: 00:00:11

read for you by Madison Scott-Clary,

Speaker: 00:00:14

whose tail is behind her.

Please enjoy: 00:00:16

“Dear Concerned Estranged”

Please enjoy: 00:00:19

a poem by Rob MacWolf

Please enjoy: 00:00:23

I saw that you left me a voicemail.

Please enjoy: 00:00:26

I noticed you sent me a card.

Please enjoy: 00:00:29

I know you’re expecting an answer, But finding the time is so hard.

Please enjoy: 00:00:34

The gods and the ghosts outside waiting,

Please enjoy: 00:00:37

The skies underfoot in the street,

Please enjoy: 00:00:40

The sunsets in sun-scented forests Where mountains are smaller than trees—

Please enjoy: 00:00:45

All of these things

Please enjoy: 00:00:47

are my life now. I’ve no time to pick up the phone.

Please enjoy: 00:00:51

I live everywhere

Please enjoy: 00:00:53

out on the highway

Please enjoy: 00:00:54

And the one place I can’t go

Please enjoy: 00:00:57

is home. There are gardens whose stillness has lasted For longer than man has had fire.

Please enjoy: 00:01:05

There is music that no one has mastered, And it waits for an ear to inspire.

Please enjoy: 00:01:09

There’s apples of gold

Please enjoy: 00:01:11

and of silver And glistening obsidian too.

Please enjoy: 00:01:14

The gold heal.

Please enjoy: 00:01:16

The silver grant wishes.

Please enjoy: 00:01:18

Who knows what the obsidian do?

Please enjoy: 00:01:22

There are hours in the the hours beyond midnight

Please enjoy: 00:01:25

That no human clock has yet known.

Please enjoy: 00:01:28

All these you

Please enjoy: 00:01:30

would have me abandon

Please enjoy: 00:01:32

In exchange for a chance to come home.

Please enjoy: 00:01:37

I think I don’t think you remember What I once had to do to survive.

Please enjoy: 00:01:42

I lived in the upper back cupboard.

Please enjoy: 00:01:44

I told all the necessary lies.

Please enjoy: 00:01:46

But lies cannot keep one from freezing And you lose all the taste from your tongue.

Please enjoy: 00:01:52

And I couldn’t keep the lies moving.

Please enjoy: 00:01:54

They ran out of fuel and were done.

Please enjoy: 00:01:57

I left them somewhere on the highway—

Please enjoy: 00:02:00

They’re probably still out there alone—

Please enjoy: 00:02:03

Then I turned around and got walking.

Please enjoy: 00:02:06

I knew that I couldn’t come home.

Please enjoy: 00:02:09

So I will be out in the sunrise In the lots where old shops were torn down.

Please enjoy: 00:02:14

And I will be down every alley In every forgotten town.

Please enjoy: 00:02:19

And I will not need your umbrella

Please enjoy: 00:02:21

The rains, they will do me no harm.

Please enjoy: 00:02:24

I’ll turn my face to the rainfall And the rainfall, it keepeth me warm.

Please enjoy: 00:02:28

And maybe, at the end of some autumn,

Please enjoy: 00:02:31

A ship will be waiting for me

Please enjoy: 00:02:33

Where the sun will be setting and steeping Its colors all into the sea.

Please enjoy: 00:02:37

I’ll say goodbye to the summer.

Please enjoy: 00:02:40

I’ll leave the highway behind.

Please enjoy: 00:02:42

I’ll take the ship,

Please enjoy: 00:02:43

and forever Be somewhere out there with the wind.

Please enjoy: 00:02:46

And that, I’m afraid,

Please enjoy: 00:02:49

is my answer.

Please enjoy: 00:02:51

It’s the only one that I own:

Please enjoy: 00:02:54

Even though you’ll never see me,

Please enjoy: 00:02:57

That's where I’ll be

Please enjoy: 00:02:58

finally home. This was

Please enjoy: 00:03:02

“Dear Concerned Estranged”

Please enjoy: 00:03:04

a poem by Rob MacWolfd,

Please enjoy: 00:03:06

read for you by Madison Scott-Clary,

Please enjoy: 00:03:08

whose tail is behind her. .

Please enjoy: 00:03:11

Thank you for listening to The Voice of Dog.