You read disclosure does
couples good, so we listed
all our previous loves—
the number wasn’t bad:
a mere dozen
old flames smothered
beneath our tangled sheets,
leaving room and
heat enough for us—
but as we started to seal
a promise for the future,
a compact on forgetting,
you squealed—and I rubbed
your thigh even harder,
tried to wipe away all
the fingerprints
I saw swirling there.
Noel Sloboda lives in Pennsylvania, where he teaches at Penn State York and serves as dramaturg for the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival. He is the author of the poetry collection Shell Games (sunnyoutside, 2008).