there are certain tendernesses I cannot handle
like the intimacy of a shared clothes rack
underwear and socks hung side by side
in a sort of domestic solidarity that seems to imply
everything and nothing at the same time
the meaning that is embedded in the practicality
of a life lived in the same spaces
the closeness that is inevitable and so precious
as we move through these spaces
breaking apart and trying valiantly
to hold ourselves together we insist to one another
take this here please take this relief
as we cannot offer it to ourselves
