Feigned Ignorance

You sat me down to explain the math

of why the center couldn't hold,

using words like 'bandwidth' and 'trajectory'

as if they were bandages for the cold.

I let my face go slack and wide,

a blank wall for you to paint your grief upon.

I nodded at the wrong parts,

waiting for the light to be gone.

My hand hovered over the folded map

while your finger traced the way we went wrong,

but I already knew where the border was.

I’d been standing on the other side all along.