5word carryon: phantom fronthall

question
discouragement
quite
open
more
--
when I look at you, I think things that are
quite open; the way oranges roll along the countertop,
the way stories I half-told roll
across my tongue--
things required and under
the glass-topped table two people

hide in awkward wedges. if you
need a little more discouragement, I can provide that
for you, or if you would prefer to be quite ignored, I can
give you that.

if you were quite alone in an open space like
a white field or an airstrip, and if I
suddenly appeared quite close to you, my breath
trickling over the warmer places of the air like
fog down stairs; if the real reason for sewing shut
the doors of the phantom fronthall had to do with
your answer to that-- then do you suppose

we could more or less settle on the correct proportion
of discouragement and blank eyes?

..

..

open question.

--

are you a poet? ask me about 5word carry-ons.
(lascivious/rearguard/until/tote/green)