Empty

We danced like drunks around the mat

singing ‘Lazybones’ bass and falsetto

until our voices were tired and flat

long through the night with nowhere else to go.

But we had to leave the song

and start real dialogue – completely lost,

not knowing what to say next. Outside, rain

washed away the rules, washed away our games.

And now there’s only us, with senses clean

and now there’s only me, perceiving in

time and space these less than empty faces

and from each eyeball I add up the cost

of aging, water, skeleton, brains, rust:

together in flesh, connected by rain.