“So they sang in sweet utterance
and the heart within me
desired to listen”
-Homer, The Odyssey, Book 12
He listened to the bits of residual conversation
He could remember and reshape like wax to his ear
When he spoke to her now how could he be certain
That what he said mimicked what she heard
The words seemed to move with such easy exchange
Within his assumption of mutual understanding
Her non sequiturs translated his heart
As if all she said danced only his dreams
Yet most of what he heard were only his echoes
Projections of light and shadow upon silence
A rehearsed monologue ignorant of its irony
And to follow that call that hope of consummation
Would be to fall broken into jagged rocks
Desire’s flesh hanging mute on each of their bones
(August 2011)
subtext 