Sitting across the table
In the garden of our garden apartment
I stared at the paper my husband was reading
And I said to him:
"You're a stranger
A total stranger
Always have been
Always will be
Sitting there
Hiding there
Behind that printed mask
Stop reading, stop reading me out of house and home
Must I ask till my mouth fills up with foam?
You total stranger
You stranger, you!"
Then he lowered the paper
And I saw it was not my husband
But a total stranger
A total stranger who said to me:
"I am a kind of hobo of space
Trying to find a mask to erase
The mask behind the face."