Innocently, we sent our xxx's back and forth,
across oceans,
flood plains,
mountain ranges.
And then, one day, I introduced the ooo's.
What are they? you asked.
What do they mean?
And I told you they were hugs.

o x o = oxygen, you responded,
and I answered: At last I can breathe.

Hydrogen + hydrogen + oxygen + NaSO4 = tears,
I invented.
O, I knew that equation by heart!

So, we continued, day after day,
with our innocent give and take,
back and forth,
across millenia of culture,
language,
violence,

our simple x's and o's
a minute flurry,
indiscernible,
in the scheme of empires,
ethnic cleansings,
genocides...

Back and forth,
day after day,
until there was more salt than H2 or O.

At the end of your last message,
you wrote:
You have a beautiful face and beautiful eyes!
and you signed off with a single x.
X for EXIT, I knew.

Now all I have left is O!
O! my dear friend,
how empty my life will be
without the x-tasy
of your seductive equations...