(word)

You never know
where a word
is taking you,
or a phrase.
He scrawls objections
across my poems
to my repetition
& adds but then
that is your phrasing.
Why, yes it is
I think,
& necessary as breath
to me.
He is more concise
with words.
At home he hardly
needs them at all.
He answers my questions
with one of his own,
& rarely answers
when I call.
He doesn’t see
the need,
for too much talk,
for dialogue or
conversation.
So I have become
a stand-up of sorts,
and he my audience
who never leaves
the room,
but sits nursing
his same beer
late into the
night.

2/10/99