Take the invisible pill
and disappear

Or take the one prescribed
and shrink

Fire curls
below a dry wind
he leans against smoke
introduces
to no one
the woman his wife was once
as she wraps the remains of the day in tinfoil
pours backwash over dust
swats at flies

Their marriage
a thing apart but owned
between them
walks

Fire curls
below a dry wind
he leans against smoke
regales
no one
with the story of the man he is
before a mirrored storefront window
jarred by the confrontation
of inner and outer truth

She presses her fingers
to a bruise
to an ache
to her eyelids
apologizes by rote
retreats

Beside the fire
he aspires to invisibility
no one
settles for avoiding reflection

swallows

and is less