Each Day Then Was As Each Day Now
Stephen Newton


Each day then was as each day now
curtains bent to accept the fading light
leaves spinning headlong in a cold wind
clouds blowing across the October sky

but now the couple in this poem have come
to the point that was not supposed to arrive
where they are recoiling from each other's touch
both looking away when pressed to explain

the currents in their life once fed by desire
are filled with words they are afraid to say
the past now not what it seemed at the time
their brightest days filled with approaching rain

a night with stars and falling leaves
empty boxes soon to be filled with possessions
of one or the other and carried out to the car
but until this evening still only filled with air

and the distant sounds of breathing
even tonight even in this time before the
final scene which has not yet arrived
the boxes are full of space and sound call it

whatever you like but still there is something
made of the two of them here a bit that is left
and is worth mentioning don 't you think
even if they wouldn't see it this way

these people pulling apart but still together
still breathing beside each other in the night
tender in sleep in spite of themselves
for the moment unaware of all they are about to undo


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