“A Silence that Tempts the Imagination”

I met you in the silence

and we sat without words for a time.

We both leave things unsaid,

glaring gaps in speech

that we fill with glances

until they overflow,

a flood of nothings that should have been something,

something we can only imagine.

--

I liken you to a soldier,

because I tell you you have known hurt.

I made ripples in a pond with a misfired stone,

splashing water that spilt

hot and resistant from your eyes.

Sometimes I do not know you,

and that is when I feel hollow,

noticing the holes ripped through

the heart-like place in my chest.

--

I liken you to a building

that rose from the ground with lazy determination;

that rose with metal beams and corners,

until it could stand.

I wish I could explore your foundations,

examine the structure underpinning your façade.

But there are barbed wire fences,

to prevent my offences,

and key cards that I am lacking

and security guards at every corner,

standing in the silence,

where I met you.

--

So I stare without words and imagine

a complex system of pulleys and levers

that made you what you are

and what you aren’t.