Fiances of Molasses

The dog was talking to the cat wondering why it didn't understand. The cat was listening. Scared it'd couldn't hear anymore.

The cruelty of language confronts our skin. Glimpses of knowing what the other has said make the game go on for that much longer. Tongues spilling out words these bodies cannot pronounce.

I'm old you know. She said. Louder than she ever talked. I'm old because I waited too long for things change. And they never did. Like the hopeless often do. Only I never knew I was hopeless until the waiting was over.

That fact that no one was listening didn't deter her. All the world was guilty as far as she was concerned. Of stealing bread to feed itself. The kind of crimes that make us better people. Or at least able to discover the victim in the criminal.

Watch my tail wag the dog said to the cat. Try to catch it. You never will. They played that game for years without a winner.

Now I'm the one who can't love and you want to be. Now this skin peels off in little bits. And you don't know what to do with it.

We waited too long to hate each other.

We waited too long for everything.

Now it's forgotten us.