Homework

I keep him company on the phone
While he studies for his classes
He sings as if I wasn’t there
Pleasantly I am a given.

Every nuance of our chatter
Gives the opportunity
To wrest a clearer frame of reference
Live once more a life discarded.

What a precious waste of time
We spend together almost dozing
Punctuate with bitter struggles
Give and take the boundaries shifting.

Nothing else exists right now
In these moments that are frozen
Intimacy is so fragile
Finding out what's good in me.