Haunted House Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

I am sitting, here, in this room
where the energy of our love-making remains constant,
distant echo from a galaxy traveling away at the speed of lies -
the red-green shift of passion barely detectible as radio-waves -

yet, here, present.

What didn't connect in those precious months
before you went back to your wife?
Why that extraordinary conflagration of the senses
that stunned me after decades of marriage?

I thought we were a couple -
I still think we are - but so far apart
that only technology connects us.
What I could not say then I cannot say now?

And you? The enigma I never solved?
The code I never broke? The Cheshire Cat
who never ceased to smile as you slowly evaporated?

Here, now, in this room with me

where I'm alone forever with you.


2/2/06