Habits

I am a silent person
brief by nature
imparting things
unaccustomed to clamor

that is why it was so
dashed uncomfortable for me –
the constant noise in my head
after you drew away
from me

and I suppose that you
were used to
the physical silence of
solitude

and unused to the
constant specter
of a companion hovering
beside you

and that was why
you began to move
away

but not soon enough
for us both to experience
the questioning halfway
of frustration –

the unfulfilled promises
of your fingers
and my negligent kisses
where that much too much
of a lingering

I say we were both distracted

you by me
me by the lack of you

it becomes a circle
and I wonder now
where such a circle ends

Bio: Maude Larke has come back to her own writing after working in the American, English and French university systems, analyzing others’ texts and films. She has also returned to the classical music world as an ardent amateur, after 15 years of piano and voice in her youth. Publications include Bird’s Eye reView, Naugatuck River Review, Cyclamens and Swords, riverbabble, Doorknobs and BodyPaint, Sketchbook, Cliterature, Short, Fast, and Deadly, and The Centrifugal Eye.