subtext

I think about you often still

and what it means to speak of you

as if you were some other

to be conjured around a fire

a simple shift in the dance

from first to second person

or to the gendered third

of he and she or the diverse

yet inclusive plural they and we

all in order to transform beneath

another guise as untrustworthy

as this I we use to give voice

to our muttered chants and words

and they are our words more than mine

or yours or even vaguely his or hers

we share them like kisses and caresses

to seduce and  assuage our guilt

with misunderstanding’s complicity

I think of you this way too often

substituting a he or she as avatars

to distance us from the consequences

choking with misapprehension any life

which might grow between you and I