ELLEN JAFFE

Plate Tectonics: Fault lines

 

Under our relationship –

maybe under every relationship –

lie inevitable fault lines, dormant,

some tiny, hardly worth mentioning,
 
others potentially catastrophic –

these lines imply no blame,

nobody’s “fault,” just cracks

in the fabric of the world we live in,

the way we live our lives,

the chaos of history.

Discrepancies of love, perhaps –

“too much, too little” – or remnants of the past,

defenses, denials, needs that shift,

feelings that tremble, causing tremors.

Sometimes

only dishes break

sometimes a heart,

or even the whole earth

taking us deep

into the ocean

of the unknown,

the seismic waves of loving.

                                                            Ellen S. Jaffe