Cross Talk Noise

by Tsutomu Inoue

You and I were talking over the sea.

You were in the night, and I in the morning.

You talked about your day, and I about my dream.

You fell asleep

While I was talking.

Outside the window was filled with sunlight.

Inside the receiver was filled with darkness.

Except for cross talk noise

There was no sound.

I felt it was a foreign language,

Chinese maybe.

The noise escaped from the receiver

And the wind chased it

A man yelled in Chinese

And the wind caught it

You talked in your sleep

And wind carried it.

I wondered if you saw a Chinese dream.

You and I were talking over the sea.

You were in your night, and I was in my day.

You fell into your dream, and I hung up the phone.

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Tsutomu Inoue 

Born in 1975 in Kanazawa, Japan, he grew up in a local city and left his hometown for Tokyo to go to university when he was eighteen years old. After dropping out of Sophia University, he began to play the guitar and write songs in a band called “Highway 61,” (a band named after Bob Dylan’s album “Highway 61 revisited”). After some years the band released its 1^st major album with Warner Music Japan. However, sales were so bad that the band broke up in 2007. After deciding to come to the U.S to study creative writing in 2010, he is still struggling to master English but enjoys every moment at Berkeley City College in California.