Phone Call

You heard the familiar ring
that seemed to announce his call,

closed your eyes when you heard his voice
speaking words from
love poems that were never written

A cadence with pauses
as natural as the the silent moments
between the rhythm of a beating heart,

Verses of the freest kind

In which everything
meant I love you I
love you I love
you I love you I love you
I love
you I love you,

as it always has.

Your hands held a cup filled
with warm sweet coffee,

and then in one sip
you drank the afternoon itself.

Your kitchen is still life

Your kitchen is still life,
and you stand in it, chewing
a piece of carrot, and smiling

because this is where I thanked you
for having me, and this is where
you replied that you hadn't yet.

* * *

In the morning, before I go out to change
the world, you take a golden apple,
and place it in my hand.

The sounds of rushing cars are rare

The sounds of rushing cars are rare
here as the moonlight shines on me.

Desire's patient knocking at the rickety door
of my heart keeps me awake.

When you asked tonight at our table, in the restaurant,
if I wanted anything else, I lied

and focused instead on the rain outside.

The umbrella created a private sky
under which we walked until

the night became silent, and the train
pulled us apart.