He puts his phone
face down
and looks at her.

She is saying something
about her sister,
or maybe
her sister’s dog,
or the fence
her sister’s dog
keeps digging under.

He listens.

Not the way
a machine listens –
with perfect
recall
and no stake
in the outcome –

but the way
a person listens
when they know
that what matters
is not the fence
or the dog
but the fact
that she chose
to tell him
about it.