Between Us

That night we lay
gin-soaked under white sheets
undiscovered.
All the signs were there
but we made a tender side-step
preferring instead the narrow
violence of normalcies not ours.

What I didn't say
plus what you did
equals a new balance
between us.

We were each other’s
impossible hopes
in unexpected shapes.
In that stretched moment,
a landing-place. A light.

And how I wish I could have made that leap
yes I wish I could have found the words
but there were too many rules between us
and I wouldn't have known where to begin.

Dear R, I'll never forget,
your invitation and attendant betrayals.
Doing nothing, we betrayed everything.

In the morning, a table scrubbed,
a cliche, and frost in the garden.
You shone.