The focus shifts
Yet again
And we back into our dark corners
Faces stony, concealing emotion
We do not let on how much it hurts
At least, not in your presence

How did it happen?
Just sunlit moments ago, we had been smiling
Our laughter lit up the small rooms
Delighting in the life we shared, the world we had built
Together

And yet so suddenly,
the storm clouds have rolled out
It starts with anything, any small umbrage
And maybe we try and believe all it is is just an anything
But we know what it is, what really stirs the yells and the point-blank refusals
What carves the chasm of misunderstanding deep across the dining room table
What shakes our earth into jagged pieces
Two different countries could be two different worlds for all the difference they create

It leaves as it came, quickly, quietly
Our timid smiles, polite speech
We pretend
Pretend it’s all right
And you, you will joke as you had before
But there is a perfunctory air about it, as though
You are only trying for us

All we want is to see you try for yourselves

And soon enough, the chasm will be filled

The harmonies will ring, and our everyday, no more than a system of hours and minutes
Will go on

But it is there, and we know it
And our forbidden tears in the dead of night
Tell us what we cannot understand
This is what we chose, and this is how we will live
This is the sacrifice we made for understanding
For a new world
This is what became of a play love
Too beautiful
Too different
to be perfect