The Transistor is the Original Ghost

when you keep hearing
about yourself
from

somewhere off in the radio space
of birth
not a voice or program
something else
picked up

and it says
you have grown unwilling
to suffer for beauty

is that just some kind of reverse
romanticism
you know
you used to feel
sadness for every twig and steeple
but now
you're sad because you cannot
conjure
a twig's worth of sadness for

or is this
a deep threat
a clear and true
pop riff
coming straight
for me