The Window Before Which We Last Kissed Is on the Market
Francesca Bell
The kitchen around it
was demolished, rearranged.
The refrigerator is now
where we stopped
to grab the tea kettle
from its burner,
but I cannot find
a photograph that shows
where they moved
the stove or if there’s room
anymore for the table where we ate
with your parents
the night I stopped
being a vegetarian.
I see the sink
still in its location
in front of the window
I peer through
out onto the evening,
your father’s lawn
tasteful and lush
in memory’s soft light.
Side by side,
water running like time
down the drain before us,
we were near enough
the same height that you
didn’t have to bend
when we finally turned
and kissed after those years
of your deployments
and my plentiful boyfriends,
after long nights rummaging
separately in memory’s corridors.
Our mouths still
fit perfectly,
that last kiss like a sanctuary,
like a home,
but also like the sad surprise
of stumbling upon the listing
for an address you thought
you’d always have.