Obligations by Lisa Zaran

The silent sorrow says it all

and the elaborate way in which we avoid one another,

the long evenings with you in the studio

and me with my nose stuck in some poetry book.

Flustered once, you spoke such tender words to me.

I love you was a phrase we knew so well.

The August night falls upon us, stars and moonlight,

a temperate breeze.

Tomorrow I will leave.

Lisa Zaran is an American poet, essayist, occasional interviewer and the author of six collections. Her first book, the sometimes girl, was recently the focus of a year long translation course in Germany. She is the founder and editor of Contemporary American Voices, an online journal of poetry, which has now been approved to be used as the subject of study for a translation course in Germany.