By: David Francis

I feel I know a side of you
that no one but me knows
I see you with the others
and I feel lost

I think: no, nothing in common
exists between us as if
an alarm went off
and I woke

This drains the color from my face
and suddenly I’m aware
of this opening in my mask
that passes for a smile

And then I see no future
an arctic night in my mind
a dead-end, all illusion…
I keep smiling

Is someone speaking to me?
I try to look agreeable
glance from one to the other
after the fact

trying to home in on the sound
desperate and embarrassed
befuddled, baffled, distracted
caught in the act

This mercifully passes
and I am back with my thoughts
of escape hatches, trap doors
escapisms

It is then I do remember
those nights of intimacy
our language and times
I know are real

they are actual and recent
no matter what I am seeing
that side you give me, that side
is real I know