Always thought our lives were strange

And what secrets we had, we shared with

No one, except each other, the shadows of

Our hearts a mystery we could not solve.

And so we pondered instead the hidden

Doorways of a love uncertain, though we

Spoke otherwise, seeking to define the meaning

Of awkward glances in darkened rooms.

And what lingered there, behind her dark

Brown eyes? The hesitant smile just before

We kissed, when those eyes would then shift

From mine, what was she looking for?

In that long ago summer, when did I realize

She was drifting away from me? The gulf of

Her silences growing wider as I floundered

In its depths, how did this come to pass?

The night she told me goodbye beneath a

Vacuum of fractured diamonds, I kept my

Secrets to myself, the shadows of her heart

A mystery I could not solve.

Her eyes much too far away.

END

“Shadow Play”