They leaned back
in their chairs
at the café, neither fully present
nor gone, his mind cut loose
from his heart
like a dinghy in cold, still water.
And she felt the weight of caring
had been lifted
from her. She felt she would soon know
a freedom some of her friends knew,
unmoored,
a hundred options in a bittersweet dark.
Diminuendo
– Stephen Dunn
What attracts you to this poem?
It’s interesting for anyone who has wanted out of a relationship — Anyone who has sat back and reflected on the affection they _used_ to feel, past rituals of kiss and cuddle, rituals that seem completely foreign by the end.
Dunn captures the feeling of alienation perfectly. Two people estranged from their own mutual history.