Opening Line

By Justine C. Tajonera

It's just a simple conversation:
let's get together,
you and I,
let's talk all afternoon,
all evening,
if we can.

Then why is it so hard
to get this simple
message through
to you?

There's a dance around
this thing we are
doing,
something called
convention,
expectation.

I don't know.

There should be you
and me.
But in between

there are castles,
walls, screens,
stories, lies,
assumptions, rumors,
lakes, therapy,
thesis statements,
phobias and
pictures of
us

that are scrubbed
clean from my
facebook wall
but surfacing randomly

in my dreams:
mug shots flying by
as I do something ordinary
like open a door.

I want to open a door.
That's all I want
to do.

(Dec. 23, 2009)

For S.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/starrynight1/2250956869/