Shadow in the Dark

She drills through my mind like a wound
that I feel bodily. There is no place to go
for me to heal, no method of meditation
I could treat as someone else’s love. To dissolve

her image I must blacken my thought, no light
piercing through. Life waning, no prospect
in reason’s mourning. Self-judgment rises
with dawn, slightly lime, breathing the satisfaction

of merely knowing her. I suck the morning’s
lemon as the day accumulates its household
memories and errands to be done. She moves
with me, a shadow in the dark, and soon

I will sleep, the wound easing, but to forget would
be best. No, I don’t dream her, my drug shuts down
such pretenses. Today is my shopping day.
I will touch the eggplants and the seedless grapes.