Sunil Iyengar

Residuals

We thought to bring the leaves into a pile

before they scattered everywhere at once.

To follow through, it’s true, was not our style.

More to our taste was an insouciance

both of us showed each morning when we left

for work, a backward look that was bereft

of any ruefulness about our hoard

emptying in the street. When we ignored

the crush beneath our wheels, it was to say,

“What does it matter if we never get 

around to getting bagged or hauled away

what we’ve built up so slowly?” No regret

impaled us as a leaf caught on a tine.

The sun, for one good hour, was yours and mine.

Count all the tans and burgundies that drift

right to our door a portion of this gift.

The Interlocutor

I went downstairs to breakfast

and saw to my dismay

the dishes were piled up

in froth of yesterday.

The wreckage on the table

told of plaintive talk

that no amount of caring

had managed to unlock,

but here the bottles ranged

in testimony of

the candor that can flow

from Riesling, if not love.

How scrupulous we were

to keep our story straight.

Our manner over dinner,

corporate, sedate.

It only took a friend

to loosen our routine.

A friend not yours or mine,

but somewhere in between.

And, as a streak of pink

undermines a cloud

to call us from the window,

we had been allowed

a view not often granted

two who knew the score,

or thought they shouldn’t look

for secrets anymore.

When hope at last had kindled,

settling with a glow

on faces once familiar,

our guest stood up to go

and we were left with—what?—

the makings of a fire

we poured cold water on,

agreeing to retire.

You’re still asleep. I woke

to yesterday’s detritus,

amused a stray confessor

briefly could unite us.

Sunil Iyengar is the author of the chapbook A Call from the Shallows (Finishing Line Press). His book reviews and essays have appeared in Literary Matters, The New Criterion, Essays in Criticism, Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Scholar, Washington Post, and other publications. He lives outside Washington, D.C., and works as an arts research director for a federal agency.