Lumen
There is
a slosh of lukewarm coffee.
He holds
his cup as if warming
his hands on it.
We sit
and he reads,
like it is the same night
of stories and children in the photos
that curl against themselves
on his dresser,
when
my reasons for sitting
with him
were not what
they are.
His coffee is cold.
This waiting is ugly.
He reads, he falls asleep,
reads.
I pretend there is no lacuna.
I laugh when he needs me to
and lie enough.
Matthew Wallenstein lives in New Hampshire. He recently returned from Mexico City, Mexico where he was the artist in residence at La Martires de 1968 collective. Matthew was also the writer in residence at Hell And Gone gallery in Brooklyn, NY for the month of August. His work has been published in the short story compilation Nothing Else Follows and Desposable Everything (which was published by the University of New Hampshire).