The Dissolution

Thomas Wilmer Dewing

Finally

we have come to this moment
almost face to face
mouths pulling back smiles
and heads nodding nodding

but sneaking in, silence has expanded,
traveled across the diagonal distance
of us, at the table, pretending

uncertain, not quite listening to each other
we continue smiling
avoiding the eyes, looking
around the room, at the brown speck
beneath the window, the square
container of sugar packets (yellow, pink, brown),
the strangers walking dogs, in the cold, in
the drifting snow outside

What was between us has gone wrong—
somehow—a sense that this time
time won’t be forgiving—carelessness has
crept in and sent cracks through
something that was once important


Written: January 8, 2011