one of the things i never told you

you said once
that you felt other people were in bed with us.
former lovers, alter selves
a host of ghosts.

i kept silent.
it was the future that spooked me
a brown-eyed child
real as my breath
broad shouldered & strong

i rock him, even now
in the empty, swinging, cradle
of my hips--
beloved--
despite the trivial fact
of his apparent non-existence