Kristen de Kline #193 Missing people

seagulls hover
clouds gather

picking away
at soft shell crab

in Susie Wong's
sliced chilli, fresh

bean shoots, we
talk about loss

and love and
things, missing

in the girl's smile
a gap between

her two front teeth
Tupperware lids

containers that housed
hot salami & cheese toasties

sealed in plastic, black
and white portraits on

milk cartons, a single-sized
doona cover, floating away

with shooting stars and
hacked crescent moons

tangled
sheets
that she'd tossed in
the
night

... before ...

we both get stuck
on the time-line

here then
gone now

it's like that     some
times    the things we

talk about:    love, two
missing teeth and loss

and
the things we don't:
- - - -

and
those we can't:
- - - -

clouds hover
seagulls gather