“most of my injuries came from stereotypes”
-Roland Barthes
her easy conversation formed
a trope he became enamored of
which transcended her absence
into auras like pockets he could
place bits of string and pebbles
phrases she said a tilt of her head
small fetishes for his reliquary
without consequence beyond
spaces to occupy his anxiety
the troubled suppositions of what if
cascading in avalanches of dread
about him until he became lost
in the quandaries of meaning
embedded within which gestures
which words she might have said
(February 11, 2015)
subtext 