We were too old to play
hide & seek,
so we added a handicap
and did it in the dark.
The game turned grim
as you counted out loud—
I trod softly
like the newly blind,
groping around
for nooks to disappear in.
Your bodiless voice
could have been anyone’s—
lover, intruder or specter.
I crouched first under the sink
then the coffee table,
clung onto the beams
of the mezzanine
and hung there, willing
my heartbeat to stop
as I waited for a hand
to descend.
You moved in blackness,
your senses open
to the unperceived shadow,
your eyes closed to better feel
my body throbbing within the room,
your spread–out hands, like a madman’s,
stealthily crept toward my throat.
