subtext

like a mouth searching along your skin

my wounds open and close in silent

kisses:  the textures of our words shimmer

as if the sky’s reflection in a lake ruffled

by a breeze.  Meanings shift definition,

become permeable to our memory’s

altered opinions, to the hairline slivers

of doubt crackling the surface narrative

in long fractal webs laced with desire

and narcissistic happy endings: I knew

this would not end in melodramatic moans,

nor hilltop reunions ablaze in sunsets,

because life’s entanglements often disallow

whatever happiness remains to be had