Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Battleship

by Sarah E. Alderman

We play Battleship in bed
Our memories the pegs
The darkness our divider
The ceiling our board
Like children at a slumber party we giggle
As we call out positions
And it has been so long
Since a night we spent together
Was filled with sounds of our laughter
You reach for my hand in the dark
Breaking our moment of abandon
And innocent pleasure
I pretend to be in the act of rolling over
Shoving my fingers beneath my head
Just out of your reach I call out another guess
You pause as if to think, as if you weren’t hurt
By my backward advances
Then you interrupt our silence
By making me promise not to cheat
I cross my fingers beneath the pillow
And I agree
I do not want to be cruel
In my attempt to be kind
Sparing your feelings has become a fulltime job
But I let you believe what you will
By telling you a lie
“You win,” I whisper, in the still
And let you enfold me in your arms
As I pretend I am somewhere else
Anywhere else but here

1 comment:

  1. Awesome! I love the resonant bleakness of the moment you have captured.

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