How We Left Things on the Honeymoon

We decided to stay together

While still pursuing

Individual interests

In own our private time

That’s how we left things

On the honeymoon

We spent time on the beach

Swimming and eating cold sandwiches

That used to be hot

Because there’s something about

A hot sandwich

That’s gone cold

That’s better, overall

Than a cold sandwich

That’s always been cold

We spent our nights

By the poolside bar

Where we flirted with whoever

Was working the bar that night

And every so often

We’d take someone back to the room

Only to wake up the next morning

And find no evidence of them

Ever having been there

The Activities Director keeps asking us

To do things together

As a couple

And none of them seem fun

We don’t know if they’d seem fun

If we were a happy couple

Instead of just a couple couple

We might like playing trivia together

And asking questions about how well

We know each other

On the beach

While volleyball games

Happen just out of earshot

Instead we play volleyball

With the single men and women
Who populate the resort

We’re staying at

The Activities Director believes us

To be swingers

But we’ve never swung

And we have no plan to

When we go home

We’re going to bundle up

Back in our colder environment

And we’ll appear at our office jobs

And social engagements

Together, sometimes

But mostly alone

And when people ask

About our other half

We’ll say that they have a cold

Or a headache

Or a headache brought on

By a cold

And the conversation

Will move on

Because nobody is all that interested

In spending time with a couple

Except maybe other couples

But we never spend time

With other couples

So it’s never an issue

When we don’t go out

We stay home

And when we stay home

We have separate rooms

Big rooms

Because we settled for a place

With a small kitchen

And an even smaller living room

And a bathroom that does not have

A bathtub

All so we can have two very large bedrooms

And those bedrooms

Become their own little apartments

In which we do all our living

We spend our nights

Staring out our respective windows

Down at streets

Where couples walk arm-in-arm

And we wonder if it would be nice

To be in love like that

While knowing that you can walk

Arm-in-arm with a person

And feel nothing

Other than the comfort

Of their stability

We have not chosen comfort

And in place of it

We have put the excitement

Of driving near loneliness

Then veering off

Right before the lonely hits us

Like a game of emotional chicken

Wherein we usually win

But sometimes lose

And when we lose

It feels as though

We’re always losing

But first the honeymoon

And on the honeymoon

We make a decision

That we’ve made a mistake

But that we’re prepared

To live with the mistake

Until we no longer care to

Because there are worse things

To live with

Than a mistake

You could live in the same room

With someone

And try to find something to say

Knowing nothing will make sense

And nobody

Will care

To listen