A Poem by Paul Stephenson

The Distance

after Charles Boyle’s ‘The Disguise’

So you wouldn’t know I was still following you, I gave up on likes.
No more thumbs-ups or wows. Embargo on your stories and reels.
I stopped with my claps and hearts on your Québec City château,
your fresh lobster rolls and whales in the bay and Celine Dion’s house.
I muted you on Insta and Facebook and stopped with my hey theres.
I withdrew completely (only I didn’t), religiously not clicking on you,
threw my phone in the river (in my head at least) and moved away.

To a distant town. Where I met a man in a bar on a large device who
was scrolling you. I tapped him on the shoulder to say I knew you too
but he claimed it wasn’t you, that he wasn’t following you. I bought him
a drink (a whisky chaser) and we talked about how neither one of us
was following you. I was tempted to follow him instead but thought
it too obvious and anyway I liked following you but appearing not to
way too much. We never spoke again after. I think he’s following me.

Paul Stephenson has three pamphlets: Those People (Smith/Doorstop, 2015), The Days that Followed Paris (HappenStance, 2016), written after the November 2015 terrorist attacks, and Selfie with Waterlilies (Paper Swans Press, 2017). His debut collection Hard Drive was published by Carcanet in summer 2023. Website: paulstep.com / Instagram: paulstep456 / X: @stephenson_pj