Bed

Two strangers
share a bed
still share a life
but stopped looking toward the future
when the past
became too onerous to bear.
Sometimes arms inch across worn sheets
lightly brush a shoulder
once warmed by full embrace
but the strangers
never cross the line in the middle of the bed
leaving broken memories
to churn in fitful sleep.
They dream, but never of each other.

Bodies and hearts lie in a rut
indentations in the mattress
where lovers once played.


©2000 Meredith Karen Laskow
from the chapbook "Galloping Words"
$6 ppd. available from the author