I thought about God
making time and space and you
and I fell in love

just pull lightly and slowly
on the thread, it’s satisfying
to feel the unraveling - thoughts
flow like a lazy river, slowly pulling us
along - the threads of our covering
disappear as we swim, bound
by the shorelines, loosed
in a current between

We left fate behind
these nets cast in the sea
right in front of me

We live in other
places, born at other times
to love an other

the covers wore smooth
like the sound of your name
and the binding cracks
open as our aging skin, dry
as the ink kept
on the pages within

I began to smile this morning
at my kitchen table while I
poured my first cup of coffee
as sleet tapped on the window

I lost a chess match today
against an opponent I didn’t
take very seriously and her
trades worked in her favor

I watched a movie tonight
where the conversation was over
a chess board and the coffee
cups were the pieces

no creativity, accepting to resolve
structure, as fitting inside this pattern
of no distractions and no instructions
and the promise of a plan tomorrow

no affection, except in the fruitless
domestic ambitions of making love
look like it is outlasting the neighbors
and saving the children from our future