Voice and Other Vices

voice – use it you said unspecific
about the body parts words shed –
snake skin onions
and olive oil in the frying pan –
sizzling with the heat of rumours

last Monday I wrapped an adjective
around that lamppost down
there where our street converges
with the next and we rise
in the stream-flow index –
mercurial voyage downtown

where we drink decaf in the afternoon
before wine with dinner
conversations reliving
the building-blocks of each hour
spent and not forgotten
with all the meaning of Hallmark cards

use it you said – expressive
and expansive searching the veins
of our siamese existence
for that deadly virus neither of us
really want to flush