Letters

we
use to write
each other letters,
encyclopedias of our love

today
a trickle of blood
makes its way
out of me
each time
a silent vowel dies
at the end of the words
alone and invisible

you look at me
like a pinprick,
your flinty eyes
cut my wings

the silence sealed
between us
on a war footing

we eat our soup,
tomato and alphabet,
heads down,
swallowing our red letters

all our words
lying in bulk and rotting
in the pit of our stomachs