Kevin Bacon on the TV screen, slowly removing

the white bandages

unveiling the void beneath…

“Can we talk?”

I lower the volume yet the words still

bleed through from behind me as I face

the man I trust,

who speaks words I find hard to hear

hard to understand

hard.

Words revealing the empty promise

which I once thought was truth.

My mind fluctuates between

fiction and fact

gifting me a degree of separation

to save my sanity,

slow my reaction,

stay the jerk of my knee,

as the facade of my marriage is uncovered.

Broken

Hollow beneath the blanket of

my love, my trust, our contract.

Each lie brought to the surface,

emerging from the wrapping of deceit.

Each lie stripping my belief

of my life, our life, his honour.

I became something else in those moments,

burying my self beneath layer after layer of safety.

Disappearing into a cocoon fashioned from

responsibility, duty

and fear.

Residing inside a self-created cloak of invisibility, waiting.

And I still haven’t seen how the movie ended.