Together Poem by Stephanie Starr

Where are you? Late again.
I am here. I am with a friend.

Where do you go? When the winds blow

I cannot tell you. I do not know.
How harsh the world is to you.

You’re right.
I’m sick of the world moving.
I am blue.

I reach out to you. What can I do?

Nothing. Leave me. I am tired. Just tired.

But I need to tell –
Whatever it is can wait for the sun to rise.
It can wait, peacefully, until I am disguised.

Let the wind reside for this one night.

Secrets are best kept when lips are sealed….
But if eyes speak, then all is revealed.

I swear to you, there is nothing to hide.
If eyes do speak, then mine are open wide.
For only love lies there, love that God cannot smight –

Then why were you not here tonight?

Is it not still night? I am here, before the light.

What kept you from being here?

The world, I’m afraid. The work I had done did not dry. It only smeared.

We ate alone, in endless silence.
Their little mouths moved up and down, with no sound.
I felt isolated, a pair on separate islands.
Your food is untouched. How did you eat…when the world came around?

I managed. It allowed me small bites, with no time to waste –

To whom were you bound?
Excuse me?
You do not run well with no fuel.
Your arms get weak and your eyes get cruel.
Now tell me who it was. The gender. The type.
I bet it was a woman, all soft and ripe.
Her hair full of curls, all soft like mine.
But this one was blonde, a rare fruit of the vine.

I do not know what you speak of –

Then why break away, love?

Alright. I ate a meal with a collegue. A male. It is no tall tale.

A male. Your words are stale.
If it was a male, with no detail,
Your words would have spoke of it first
Instead of leaving a trail.

I left no trail. I speak no lies. Like I said I have nothing to hide.

Why weave webs with such small thread,
That can break any instant and you are dead,
When the truth was so much better to be said,
Than having such chaos in your head?

None of this should bother you. Really, it is not a concern.
The long, hard day has made your mind untrustful, misleading, and all the while breeding,
Such harsh thoughts of me when the world puts such pressure on you. You must learn
To step back and look at it at full. It may not be right, but it’s not cheating.

Maybe you’re right. Maybe I –
Cheating. Cheating!
How dare you say that word!
A swear in my eyes, it cuts like a sword.

Why talk of swords when we can talk of sheep? Let my arms mend my ways....

Get away from me you creep.

What is all this? I come back from a harsh world to find a harsher wife?

You made your world harsh, “honey.”
You made your shoulders ache, and all for money.
I wanted it too, so the blame will point at me in time –

This is crazy. It is madtalk. What does it all mean?

Your scent.
It is no longer manly.
You smell of lime.

Lime?

The same lime that keeps someone else smelling fine.

Who is it?

Your secretary, Lily Sublime.

…..I….spent all day with her. It makes sense.

You spend everyday with her.
But it was never so intense.
It’s so deep that being near her air
Would not give off enough for spares.
No. You would have to be closer.

Get away from me.

And closer.

I said, step away.

Closer.

Please.

This close. Noses touching.

For what? No air to fill my lungs?

For the slightest bit of scent to flow onto you.
You would have to be like this….

…..Pressed together….

For you to smell so strong.
You’re going to tell me I’m wrong.

No. You were right all along.

My hand is in a fist not to hold something, to keep it with me,
To squeeze it so tightly I’ll never let it go,
No. It is in a fist to push something away, But not with glee,
So when I hurt that someone, it hurts me in a way they’ll never know.

Let me speak, for the world requires I give voice to those who fingers point at.
I do it all day, listen to them tell the story, and now it’s my turn to be at bat.
She seemed convenient, a good escape from what I have become.
A white lily in a field of poppies, the innocent, the perfect, a perspective I welcomed.
To be so young, so pure, was something that I longed.
But once I had her, she was out of place, wrong, the beauty did not belong.
I did not see what I had before me, a dance of family and life.
Our little ones small beauties, just little buds waiting to grow…
But the most majestic of all, which somehow I missed, was my wife.
I do not expect forgiveness, I just wished to tell
But I now I will leave quietly, knowing just how fast I fell.

No! Don’t leave.
Forgiving is not easy,
And yes, I feel queasy,
But please. Don’t leave.

I won’t.

Together we can work this out.

Apart we can’t do anything.

Together, we can achieve.