Together

He said that Cindy was gone,
purged,
the bathroom cabinet
cleared of her, so that
the sheets which he laundered
forsook her.
he swept the old dust
from the corner
so that which gathered now
never knew her.

From the back of a closet
his own taste emerged
and was neatly on display,
and yet
the flavor of her
seemed to hang in the air
like a phantom spice
in an empty kitchen.
He spoke as if in a trance,
remembering
her dance steps down the hallway,
her name and his
on the doorbell
together.