Subtexting
I don’t know if you aware of this,
but I cry after our conversations,
which are few and far between.
Your voice grows softer with each
discourse, though your laugh is still
full of joy, and your wit hasn’t lost
its razor edge. I ask how you are,
and defensiveness emerges in your
voice, that question of how much
you’ll reveal because you know why
I call, and I need to convince
myself all parts of you are still
present and accounted for. I know
you’re reconciled with loneliness,
as you hope – one day- I’ll be, but this
is where our paths diverge, as they did
the moment I entered the world,
much to your sorrow and displeasure.
In the meantime, love and filial bonds
are the rule of the hour. What’s left unsaid
is the greatest gift to our shared memory.
About the Poet:
Marie C Lecrivain is the executive editor/publisher of poeticdiversity: the litzine of Los Angeles, a Pushcart Prize nominee, photographer, and is a writer-in-residence at her apartment. Her prose and poetry have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including: Edgar Allen Poetry Journal, The Los Angeles Review, Nonbinary Review, The Poetry Salzburg Review, Spillway, Orbis, A New Ulster, and others. She’s the author of several volumes of poetry and fiction, including Philemon’s Gambit (© 2016 International Word Bank Press), which is available on Amazon.com.
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