IN WHICH I DON’T SAVE YOU
Your smile. Your quiet apology.
Your warm voice and hands and the leaves still red on the trees.
You planting the grain. You in the garden. You with the milk.
You on the edge of the bed. Saying, tell me about the man.
My palm to your palm. The salt and the knife. The damp of the garden.
Us baking the cakes. Us kneading the bread. Your shoulder to my shoulder.
Flour on the unmade bed. Mud on the floorboards.
Me saying, I don’t have the words for that.
Your smile. Your breath. Every time.
I try again. The room again. Your shoulder to my shoulder.
You in the garden. Space between us. Every time. You, the milk, the bread.
Palm to palm with space between us. You in the garden.
Breathing the same water. Baking the same cakes.
You asking again. [You asking again.][YOU ASKING AGAIN]