My Favorite Voice

The way my name sounds floating around in the air after he lets it flow out of his mouth, tumbling through the hot air the same way the smoke does. The way his jaw clenches as the C and the H mix together and his tongue wraps around the L before pushing up against his teeth to let an S escape. The way his lips purse around the P and the O's before his tongue flicks against the L again. The grit in his throat and the slight twinge of a foreign home, a voice he pushes deep down in his lungs and hides in the pockets of his cheeks, letting it rise up for me, jumbling my own words and stealing my breathe.

Five Minute Friday