Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Certain Uncertainty

A certain uncertainty
Between that man and that woman
When they tug at their sleeves
To swim through the silence

When their palms grow sweaty
In anticipation

When they speak to each other
For each other
Without wanting to know whether
They’re listening

When they embrace themselves to go away closer
When they want to feel wanted again
Under their breaths
In the shadows of warm amber nights
In the friction of moist skin

When they find themselves staring
Hunting desperately for a clue
On the maps of their faces

When the perfunctory hurts too much
And they stop looking
Morphing into cocoons

Then they remember how they’d forgotten
To stop when the lights turned red
Busy flirting with neons and bourbon....

Stepping back into the sea
Fighting the tide
Into the mosaic of the horizon
They will anew, for a bond
For a realm

A certain uncertainty is what they’ve inherited
That boy and that girl
Because when their mother left the house
And their father shut the door of his study
They thought of going out the window one day

But they found in their backyards
A seed called craving
And a flower called addiction

And now it refuses to go away
This monster of a flower
Once so pale and ethereal
Its wilted remains grow out of them
Throwing furtive glances at the world do they retire into silence?


A certain uncertainty
Between this mother and this father
She’s made coffee with milk for years
But now he wants it black


She glances often at the younger women
As he stares a windshield down
Its been years of driving down that road
Steering up the driveway
They call for their child

Her embrace tight
She buries her face in his hair
Stroking his neck
Till she feels numb

He thumps his back
Hugs him
And they talk about life, and the country
He tells him about the girl he’ll marry

He’s married one day
And as he drives away
She looks at him from a corner

How young you look today, my love
She whispers to herself
And just then
He turns towards her
And a half smile sprouts on his wrinkled face....



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