when I flex my thumb
it clicks definitively
not loudly so
but enough to convince
a gathering of believers
at a seance perhaps
yet not quite powerful
enough to summon up
a manifestation of curious
cotton wool ectoplasm
even so
believing is seeing
and my clicks I’m sure
might well persuade the gullible
that my ordinary self
is in fact a medium
and conversations
with the departed
are not miraculous
but an every day event
if only I could believe
my own clicks
I need never lose touch
with those particular ones
I’ve always loved
and regretted losing
as a Neil Diamond song says:
I’m a believer
I couldn’t leave her
If I tried
actually I couldn’t
believe her if I tried
and my thumb it’s turned out
is just a natural clicker
Jeff Cloves
montage: Claire Palmer
.