Give me a shout if you need to warn me that I’m about to crash.

Or if you’re leaning on the ship’s railing and I’m on the quay.

Or if the cat has run out of the house.

Or our son is backward on the soccer field or you just found

out you’ve won a prize or there’s a yellow jacket.

Or we’re in a noisy bar and you need to tell me

what kind of drink you’d like.

Maybe you’re frustrated there’s a poor signal.

The ocean waves are very loud and maybe

you’ve about had it.

An old man left his wallet behind and

the dead mouse in the hallway turns out to be

not quite dead after all.

Are you mad at me?

When a rate of four apologies per second is reached

my voice still won’t arrive within the hour, never mind the facts.

I don’t know how this works.

~

“The Traveling Voice” was originally published in the Lascaux Prize 2015 Anthology.

~

Jeffrey Kingman lives by the Napa River in Vallejo, California. He is the winner of the 2012 Revolution House Flash Fiction Contest, the winner of the Red Berry Editions 2015 Broadside Contest, a finalist in the 2015 Blue Light Press Chapbook Competition, and a semifinalist in the 2013 Frost Place Chapbook Fellowship. Conferences Jeff has attended include Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Napa Valley Writers Conference, Colrain, and Nebraska Summer Writers Conference. He has been published in PANK, Crack the Spine, and others. Jeff has a Master’s degree in Music Composition and can be heard banging his drums in a band called O Happy Dagger.