AR Dugan

Time and tide he thought. The cycle of life.
Ending in this, the last twilight.
Before the silence of death.
He perceived in this a micro-universe, complete.

— Philip K. Dick

I want more life, fucker.

— the android Roy Batty in Blade Runner (1982)

Ask: When did the word please / become our weakness? / Say: In every declaration I see sacrifice. / Ask: On how many altars must I open? / Say: I need the response to my call — / I love you. / Ask: Is the lie you told me empathy? / Say: Take two in the morning for your trouble. / Ask: Where’s the floating red cross that fills my vessel? / Say: Life is like a cell / phone battery — a little less each charge. / Ask: When I feel the weight of it all, / will you find the brim and overflow me? Say: My fullness is yours now. / Call me Capacity. / Ask: Why does every offering find us here? / Say: The light that burns twice as bright, / burns half as long. / Ask: Do tears count? Do thoughts? / Say: Speak my name like a good machine. Join me. / Ask: When is the expiration date? / How much time? / Say: The knowing another loss / itself. Ask: In the end, / will your depletion be enough to bring me back?

AR DUGAN is the author of the chapbook Call / Response (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and has an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. His poetry can be seen or is forthcoming in a number of literary magazines and reviews, recently in Barrow Street. He has read poetry for Ploughshares and taught literature and writing at Emerson College and Wheaton College. He lives and works in Boston.