That Room
Side by side on the narrow bed We lay, like chained giants, Tasting each other's tears, in terror Of the news which left nothing to hide But our two faces that stared To ritual masks, exposed and flayed.
Rarely in a lifetime comes such news Shafting knowledge straight to the heart Making sudden shameless sorrow start— Not childish tears, querulously vain— But adult tears that hurt and harm, Seeping like acid to the bone.
SOund of hooves on the midnight road Raised a romantic image to mind: Someone riding late to Marley? But one must suffer the facts of self; No one endures a similar fate.
And no one will ever know What happened in that room But that when we came to leave We scrubbed each other's tears Prepared the usual show. From that day Love's claims made chains of time and place To bind us together more: equal in adversity.
JOHN MONTAGUS
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