--- V E N I S E   N .  B A T T L E

A middle-aged couple sharing 
meat-lover’s pizza chews and stares
as if Orion’s belt dangles 
like an earring above the shoulder.
I watch the color of silence
pulp over their table.

Only when the aura of absence
interferes with basil and pork,
does the small-lip man proffer 
a mash of words, crumpled like a napkin.
Wife understands; she swats with
her own sedimentary language.

Certainly, they chose each other
I think to myself.  But even the
quiet longs for friendship.
The couple gone, silence becomes 
somatic: emptiness, arthritic; 
loneliness, a phantom ache 
itching behind the heart.