I got back to you
as soon as I could.
The moment that we got cut off
I thought you’d had something
important to tell me.
But I got to a tunnel
just then, and
I didn’t hear the end of your thought.

I should’ve warned you when I saw the tunnel coming
– so that’s on me.
The fact that the tunnel lasted
for what seemed like an hour and a half,
that’s just poor design.
Maybe it ran through a wormhole or something.
I don’t know.

After emerging
I got attacked by what seemed to be vultures
but might have crows.
I’m not too good with birds.
I was able to fight them off
and finally race past them
but it ate up a certain amount more time.

Some swords and stallions
got in my way later that afternoon
and a couple of women offering wine
and wild beast…
there were a lot of distractions.
I can’t explain what kept me the rest of the week
but the next month had Kwanzaa
so that took me out of circulation
for a bit, to boot.

Anyway, I’m sorry
it’s taken so long
to complete the circuit.
It seemed pretty vital
what you were talking about
so I made sure to respond promptly,
but I had to move things around to make this time.
I can’t really stay on too long
so tell me what’s up
and if I can’t deal with it right away,
I’ll get back to you soon.