Tort

Who can say when it began: one day
I came home and omitted,

forewarned by the cast in your eye, your ferocious &
sly way: ungreeting me: that there she was again

bigger than life, back in the lair you were
so unfairly confined to: others went gallivanting:

subterrain fire: it just seemed the best
way to go & so I sat & edited, letting fall

the tenth part maybe of the short run gone into
without you: most minimal: to forestall.

Once we were in tandem, I'm not forgetting: we rose & stretched
in unison, our veins intertwined & we repined if one of us was unduly delayed

in the bathroom: it's the plans that have changed things, the
dried-up dearth of them, the sequined stuff

we used to agree to begin, just as soon as we can, next year
at the very latest; the on & on, the juiciness

that's dead & gone & I guess
in the Sahara of your chair, it is all the rememberings

Copyright © 2004 Susanne Kort All rights reserved
from Northwest Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission