Return

Three days before he goes
She tallies socks and counts the nights alone.

The numbers creeping deftly into promises
Of swiftly parted, swiftly met
Lose meaning in the taxi's early light.

She shutters out the dawn
Wrenching drawstrings strangle tight
Against the space between.

Day one courting night drop
Is the only ragged remnant
Of couple space between.

Impatient.  Impervious.  Impure.
Forgetting wifehood whimsy,
Claiming spirit in the couple space between.

For twenty-one days she's herself.
He returns in a gale, a gala event on his tail,
A medal at his throat.
She winds out the bedroom at midnight
And harvests rewards in the language of self.