The Collar of Your Trenchcoat

Let us don mustaches and assume new identities. Let us try out French accents and join the Resistance. Please stand in profile under the streetlight so the angles of your lovely face appear and disappear. We cannot be seen together. Not in a time of war.

Let us meet on a corner in Prague and pretend to discuss the weather. Let us whisper through clenched teeth a few facts about Spain. There is freedom in the moment I am anxious for your safety when all I have to give is worry.

Let us close the dark curtains and dim the lights. Let us sing quietly as footfalls echo in the hallway. We smile when we are frghtened. We are waiting for explosions we know will come. There is no comfort like your trembling hand on my cheek.

Let us play at peace. Let us imagine what we will do when we can leave the house someday.

Let us remember we were never lovers and we never will be. Let us depart the way we came into shadows and smoke rings. If not for my fear, I would be nothing but longing. Your secret is not safe. I am missing a button.