Melt

[Caleb Murdock]

I am famously dense when it comes to interpreting poems which are even slightly obscure, so perhaps I'm missing something here.

I don't remember how the world turned grey
or why we stopped pretending -- just the way
we twisted into text and through our phones
we sank. I sent you sticks, you sent me stones,
and neither of us watched the ricochet.

The grammar isn't right after the dash.  I've forgotten my grammar terms, but it is either a run-on phrase or it lacks parallelism, or something like that.

I don't remember how the world turned grey
or why we stopped pretending, just the way
we twisted into text.  Through our phones
we sank.  ...

That would fix the grammatical problem, but then you have a line with nine syllables.
There are some lovely images in there.

We drained her world of joyfulness and play
and as she fell beneath our sad melee
we argued about -- what? Libido? Loans?
I don't remember.

I can't for the life of me figure out who "her" refers to.  In the first stanza, you are saying "I" and "you", and in the second stanza, you are saying "she".  Have you switched from the first and second persons to the third?  Other people seem to understand, and this is why I say I'm a little dense.  When you are writing a poem, imagine that you are explaining something to someone, so you need to be clear.

She heard it all but, mindful to obey,
she didn't interfere, just slipped away.
Please tell me how a penitent atones
for bringing forth the flesh and leaving bones? Lovely images.
Dear God, no words remain, but still I pray
I don't remember.