(after the divorce)

If once I promised you
the durability of vinyl siding,
I apologize.

If I sustained
my faithfulness
with strenuous
improvisation
and just ran out of breath,
here is a mighty silence.

Now that diligence
(my best protection)
slipped off me
like a split skin,
rawness is all
I have to offer.

I know you never
quite trusted all the names
I put on things
(the lepidopterist words),
no matter how clean the
piercing pin
or elegant the felt.

My past is a freighter
of complex registry
I pointed out to you
as if on the horizon.
How could I forget
it is your vessel too?

Now I am just
another passenger,
on a cold deck chair
wind in my tearing eyes,
blanket on my knees,
hoping we can talk.