“What do you want from life?” she asked. He said
“To live with you, smoke ganja every day,
and dance in sunlight naked.” But instead
of simple listening, she found a way
to make his words motif and metaphor
that scattered in the wind her passion blew.
Demanding his regard let her ignore
his need for hers, and self-attention grew.

He said, “I worry that you’ll figure out
I’m such a duck,” perplexing her at first.
His actions superseded every doubt,
and soon his words were prophecy. Each nursed
a mounting need that overrode the heart
and ears, and hearing not they came apart.