FIRST MARRIAGE

After David

In this dream, I was Marat in the tub

and she came to stab me. As in our old life,

I played the martyr, fierce and unforgiving.

In bed we spoke the gibberish of strangers,

and we hectored each other endlessly

before we could finally walk away.

Even then I knew hate poisons everyone,

so in my bath, in my dream, I blessed her.

The bath was milky, medicinal,

meant to disinfect the wounds.

She stayed with me a while, the shadow

of her, until she pulled back

into the world we left each other for.