PHONE CALL

I wake just before the phone rings
as if my heart knew you would call
You talk, I listen... it is strained
nothing like the ease of days
before when we talked over
each other, finished sentences 
mid-stream... listened to the silence
believing the other knew the 
end and the beginning of
the matters at hand... I wait
for your halted words, I halt
as you wait for mine

We do not know each other
this morning
an odd confession
given how intimately
we have known
the curves and indentations
of each other's heart.

I wish, but not out loud
you confess, but only in a whisper
this strain of time and trust
betray our struggle to be
close at hand, and I am
grateful even in the ruins

© Valerie Bridgeman
August 4, 2013