Intervening Absence

Carrie Olivia Adams

A sample poem from the book

from “Notes toward a Short Film”

The conversation should be on the balcony.
But the camera is inside the room.
We witness it only through the glass panes of the door.
The lighting crisp. The sky as if about to crack.

We are not watching faces, but his shirt flaps blowing.
He looks away from the camera and over the balcony railing.
Though facing him, she will tell him without ever looking up.

But maybe this is a silent film.

And all that could be told will be spoken
by her hand as it repetitively traces the inside
of her forearm. Maybe we see
only her fingers.