A voice I haven’t heard
all captured in letters
you taped together

each of the I love yous
you said: I do, too, and also you

How he paraded out
for the time in this life
when he’s supposed to be getting a wife–
to prove he was always the one who was right
and all that he does, he intends
even the snakes that emerged
from his monstrous and stony head

But I felt like nothing had changed,
it was subtly strange;
truth be told, it did not faze me at all:
I was ready to field your call

Allison,
I repeat
I meant what I said
when I asked you never to leave;
you were sweet
but not sugarcoated,
you gave me your firm guarantee

And what’s in a name?
I haven’t thought that way
since making ours the same

when you awoke from a dream
to say it sounded like music
how I had forgotten to breathe

You are you,
I am me,
and he’s an expression that neither of us seem to need

I believe
the matter is settled;
the project is nearly complete