Talking in Waves

Dispense with the stubborn, cynical pride,
evident in even the most casual aside,
about which, much has already been said
and many tears have been shed,
she pleads.

Please.
What becomes of us gathers,
remains and flows
from every word and deed.

And so, chastened,
his tongue abides,
cankered from flagrant use
and occasionally bitten,
nonetheless, the least
of their sorrows
that bleed.

The defense rests,
he finally concedes
with speech
grown as thick and tired
and out of reach
as the heart, once smitten,
anchored and pounded
by wave upon wave
of desire—tidal forces once
strong enough to erode a beach,
that now only faintly recede.

Tim Hawkins is the author of  Wanderings at Deadline (Aldrich Press, 2012), Jeremiad Johnson (In Case of Emergency Press, 2019) and Synchronized Swimmers (KYSO Flash Press, 2019). Another poetry collection, West of the Backstory, is forthcoming in late 2020 from Fernwood Press.