Old Poem: Polite Conversation

I have a few magazines to whom I’m considering submitting poems. Of coruse, that means dragging out all of the old poem files and reviewing what is there. This is a poem I wrote several years ago in the middle of a conflict with a friend. It’s not my best work, but some of the imagery is interesting. Comments welcome.

Polite Conversation

She said she was fine
her tone indicating otherwise
a gathering of flies picking
carefully through the conversation

Once, we shared our inner worlds
where closeted skeletons
greeted each other as friends.
We fought rabid-river rides
tumbling, turning in our make-shift raft
but always catching each other
before the current engulfed us.

She spoke now in staccato utterances
phrases chosen like steps
through piranha-infested water

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