Therapist

Time and again I would hear of you

going to see your therapist,

either the going or returning

from a session. You'd fit your life

around it. I was a friend of friends

you could, then, fit a coffee

relatively easily around the therapy.

Each time I told you I am here

to listen, if you’d choose.

I could almost see it, this cat–

someone else’s—

purring in the corner,

longing to be understood

in cat language.

Sometimes we’d reschedule

because of the therapy.

I thought

of the darkness in you,

the darkness in me

& the weak hope in all of us.