Wichita Inn

Wichita Inn

We told my parents

we were getting separate rooms

we told yours

we were staying with friends

and we pulled into Wichita

three-hundred-and-fifty miles

from either place

and sat eating steak

like and old married couple

watched Mutiny on the Bounty

in the dark

hardly tasting the popcorn

our hands wet on the

armrest

like halves

of an earthworm

together

I asked for a room

with two beds

and because we knew

we couldn't lie

convincingly

to those we loved

we lied to ourselves

as we shivered together under the

warm shower

in the dark bathroom of the

first hotel room we ever called

"ours"

before pulling ourselves

apart

to slide back under

the covers

of separate double beds.