In the margins between
anger and amusement,
you sleep in my thoughts.

You’ve lied twice,
told me you were free.
I’m surprised by my innocence,
your eyes, hot smiling breath
as you whisper a 4am good-bye,

There is no ring.
You say, there are no children,
only the indifferent lover.

Solicitous of feelings,
friends told me:
there is a marriage.
From you, there are no words;
only grace and heat,
eyes deepening in the dark.

You have a husband.

©

R.T. Castleberry’s work has appeared in Blue Collar Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Pedestal Magazine, Misfit, Trajectory, The Alembic and Switchback. Internationally, it has been published in Canada, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Portugal, the Philippines and Antarctica. He has had poetry in the anthologies: Travois-An Anthology of Texas Poetry, TimeSlice, The Weight of Addition, Anthem: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, You Can Hear the Ocean: An Anthology of Classic and Current Poetry and Level Land: Poetry For and About the I35 Corridor.