Split Screen

Max and I are at it again. In future days we will be the editors of our own poetry anthology. The first poetry team ever (maybe). Belz/Withington. But before we actually start writing together, here is another joint idea we wrote separately on. Whose what is whose?

Split Screen

i.
This conversation would be better
If we were viewable on a split screen--
You in your curiosity and grace,
Me in my witticisms and space.

Like a stormy news show,
We exchange ideas and react.
Only divided by a line, thin and green
Down the middle of the screen.

Best of all, I could watch us talk
And take note of my own expression.
I mean literally take notes of what I see in our reactions.
Normally, I could never be this objective.

Separate the madness with a line
One pan of the camera can't contain this.
Bisect this dialogue, and join it again.
Then we'll see if we're doing this right.

ii.
From where we stand now,
All I have to go on are my own interpretations
Of your watchfully arranged words.
It would be helpful for me to see us talking on our rotary telephones
Via split screen on my television.
You would be inside of the top left triangle.
I would inhabit the bottom right triangle.
Despite the hypotenuse that divided us,
I would be better able to know what to say
By viewing your reactions, and mannerisms.
I believe it would be an accurate gauge.

Whenever you look down to your left at the coffee table where you are painting your toenails,
I will look up to my right where a spot of water damage bulges from my dilapidated ceiling.
It might feel to me as if we are looking at each other,
And then I would get temporarily distracted from the TV in front of me,
Where we are displayed for only me to see.
Not for you.
That would defeat the purpose.

If that were the case, we might as well speak face to face,
Cloaking our natural physical responses,
Like always,
As we strive to hide our b side.
If my calculations are correct, I will never know you squared,
Because unfortunately,
Neither of us owns the rotary phones
Which would keep us within our respective triangles.
You would frequently pace off screen with your mobile…

And I would gain no new insights into you.