DISTANT STRANGERS

First shadows
Begin to fall
At the door
Within the hall
The kichen clock
Half hidden face
The dinner table
Set in place.

The distant strangers
Know each other well
Husband and wife
No longer tell
Stories of days
How work went
Just evening shadows
To silence vent.

An uneasy quietness
Distance between
Hanging moments
As if a dream
Too many years behind
Too few in front
They just see it out
A nod, a grunt.