Infidelity

The sun hovering a mile above the edge
of the Pacific, the wind rifling through the sea-grass...
early evening of the longest day of your life.

Vast is this water, vast and incapable of solace.
Beside you, the wind and an empty space
to be filled with a fistful of sand.

If knowledge is understanding which questions
to ask, and wisdom is knowing which questions
to ask again, then what is it you seek, you

who have questions for which there are no answers?
There is a sleeping god in heaven.
There is a sleeping god who lets the loved one

secretly poison you in your sleep.
Even your shadow wavers behind you in the grass.
Your heart beats slowly in your chest, in your ears.

For consolation, you carry a fistful of sand.
You carry yourself over the dunes with a fistful of sand
and a newly discovered love of the second person,

your shirttails small flags left in your wake.

Copyright © 2007 C. Dale Young All rights reserved
from The Second Person
Four Way Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission