We’d launched our
final words but the
argument lingered, the
air clogged with it like
smoke after a fire.
I couldn’t grasp how
it started -
short term memory
tangled in the knots of
broken nights and
a baby’s needs. I
said, then you said,
competing over tasks
ticked off, the rights and
wrongs of our decisions.
We sat down in defeat,
silence but for the click of
the television screen. My
mind rolled across the
waves of familiar scenes,
sipped red wine until I
was a fog of tobacco, oak
and cherry pie - aromas
from the night we met.
How I loved the detail
of your tasting notes;
I love you still.
Reached hands out at
the same time, you
placed yours over
mine. Sinking sofa
bodies, rapidly
slipping eyes, we
inhaled dreamless
sleep until the
house came
ablaze
once more
with cries.
