Vega, November 1978

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

Your Receding Back

We've faced a lot of
good years together
more than half our lifetime
though sometimes your eyes
fired anger off mine
and I would salvo return.

Through the lean times
and our own fat needs
we've somehow managed
to like each other
and that's something
isn't it?

Just now I realized
what it is that sometimes
swells me with an
inexplicable sadness.
It's not facing you
with expressions
reflecting your own.

It's watching your back
receding in time
your back
familiar to me
as mine must be to you
known as we can never

know our own.
It's yourself turned from me
moving inexorably away
whether in a dream
or merely to remove

to another room.
It's a signal
a premonition
a recognition
of the final retreat.

c. 1978 Rita Rosenfeld
published in Vega, Volume 12