While you’d flinched with no words
in the robotic air of a busy church
the new strangers hid your hurts
so well, I seldom had to search

but I still remember the birch
there was nothing to return
the old written notes burnt

the phoenix from the blur
rose up with a bad lurch
too occupied to yearn
as it learned to slurp
slurp irrational spur
soul mate’s smur.