André Mangeot
Brand
Last night we each drove back alone from our
meeting at Relate: you to your home, me
to mine. Already on that drive I knew
that all the strategies were much too late
to save a marriage dying for some time.
Which is why, once home, I kept a promise
to myself: took off the ring and sealed it
in an envelope addressed to you. Then
drank for both of us, and cried, and slept.
I woke aware of absence, of panic rising.
Found my fingers working, pressing on
the place the ring should be. All I see
there now's a pale impression, a livid band
more like a burnmark on the tan skin of
my hand, It reminds me of sear-tissue,
grafts that don't react to light or ever
really heal. And in my dreams are amputees
whose phantom limbs feel vivid still, and real.
The firm, the known, the solid's gone. How long
before the contours of your face, your shape
begin to blur - like the morning lines of
sleep I'd watch fade slowly from your cheek
or places, dates I can't hold on to with
exactness any more? I'm glad we've made
our mark upon each other, love, but also
pleased to let the light back in, to watch this
waxy skin blend back to dark. True, we end
with many things we still don't know. But we
must let them go, my love. Must let them go.
Page(s) 28
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