Wayfarers

Knox Impasse

Back and forth like that

for a while. Jousting, parrying,

looking for the crack in each other’s armor—

not to deliver a killing thrust,

but to insert the scalpel to excise

what had taken root in us

yet in the end, it was useless.

I asked her if she wanted

me to deliver some message

to her former mother-in-law and she said no,

and finally,

I walked away again, alone in the world

for the second time in a week, the only

difference being that this time I only

had one arm that worked like it should.