Let the day start quiet
in short morning stillness
hands grasping for one another
through the hanging scent
of unfolded laundry and varnish.

Run errands together
revel in mundanity’s sweetness.
Grocery runs,
helping choose a new end table,
taking inventory of the threads left suspending our weight
so what’s been haunting us in past lives
can’t quite reach our necks in this one.

Even in fluorescent silence,
the motel bulb tan of an elbow
gracing a shoulder while rolling
over to adjust the curtains
feels stoically safe as a death mask
cast in burnt plaster
and bone.

There’s a specific number
you’re worth to one another,
but it’s a sum
you’d rather not say.