wearing your ears around her neck
a sign of respect
for the evenings she misses the most
remembering when she first married
eagerly joining, every single night,
another woman’s husband
to make love
maybe she wanted to be
noticed
the dragon who grew the size of a house
and wouldn’t shrink until acknowledged
maybe she wanted
his fingers around her throat
but it wasn’t the antidote
for the chasm, for her loneliness
and even that dragon knew
it takes days, it takes weeks
to be seen