March5poem: Story

for simon

Three-pronged crown and a girl with
a coke addiction for his birthday – they put
every card on the table
and, if he’d cared to continue the metaphor he’ve said –
too many jokers, but he didn’t and
he held his heart to her back and
felt his breath breathe back at him
as it grew hot, and faded
with the rise
and fall
of her breathing and he
wore the crown, because
he'd forgotten
to take it off.

Rae