He resists his clichés
With their tiny reins
Guiding the blinder’s
Simplistic vision.
“Everything’s okay,”
he says, yet knows, as she,
it is all just a lie:
her questions, the feigned
interest, are too much—
too coy in their intent
for him to be okay.
He feels his answers
Thicken like cataracts
Clouding all before him.
(January 15, 2018)
subtext 