Ulf to Uli (A Voicemail)

“Hi, uh, I…” (long silent pause)

“I, I wish I could love you the same way. Things would be so much better, so much less complicated that way… I'm just as guilty of cheating as she is, I suppose. Though you and I never even… …kissed, I encouraged you to make the advance… I set my knee close enough to yours for you to ‘accidentally' brush against me. I lingered too long in our goodbye embraces. I gave you opportunities, but you shied from every one. But I know that you love me–it's in your eyes… I know how you feel. I am on both sides of that relationship. Except yours and mine is more honest. She lies and tells me she loves me; I have never promised you that. I suppose I used you. I fed off your desire for me. And you thrived in the illusion of what really wasn't. We are so alike… Even our names–just one letter off. ‘Ulf ‘and ‘Uli'. Just ‘i' and ‘f'. Join them together and you get ‘if'–a possibility that doesn't really exist… I am finally leaving her. No more lies, to myself or to you. I will be alone. Alone and true… I just wanted you to know. I just wanted to say…”

(silence)

(dial tone)

text by a.m.
photo by Sibyll Kalff

links:

http://artdirective.org/?p=17
http://artdirective.org/?page_id=2