the blue bowl of their preference

"What becomes of former lovers? Do they dream of us
dreaming of them? Do we wander in like stray thoughts
now and then? Once they spill us out of the blue bowl
of their preference, do we slide away, cease to be that
person whom they've loved? Is it a small death somehow,
and between lovers, a limbo, until the next lover, divine,
conjures from the void of self some other person whom
he needs to love?"

[Joan Connor {1954- } from 'Tide Walk', in How to Stop Loving Someone: Stories]