Monday, July 8, 2024

The silence between her words April 17, 2012


 

It is all too vivid,

 the glint of sunlight

through the diner glass,

 scalding the silverware

and the table top.

So stark, I can see

 every crevice,

every flaw,

my fingers gripping the coffee cup

as she grips hers,

we, face to face without the cover of darkness

 or the distance of text,

her voice, her eyes, her glistening lips

across the table from me

as if I stared into a mirror

and find some stranger's face

 staring back at me,

 both of us talking,

yet not the way we talk at night,

 or even in the more

remote world of our office,

 confronted by the harshness

of a reality we do not necessarily need

 or refuse to embrace,

 her gaze filled with questions

I cannot answer, unspoken,

yet articulated in the silences

between the words.

 


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