Bedfellows

Full of coins, bells and
portents, the plait of your
hair lies on my chest with
the weight of a gorged
snake as you indifferently
poke a nail lacquered
in life’s blood at a broken
heart tattooed above the
fast-beating original and
ask for its story, pretending
to listen while I pretend
to tell the truth, both of us
practicing the politics
of post-orgasmic faux
intimacy.

Kyle Heger, former managing editor of Communication World magazine, lives in Albany, CA. His writing has won a number of awards and has been accepted by 70 publications, including London Journal of Fiction, The Dalhousie Review, and Typehouse Literary Magazine.