Secret Lesion

Couples standing side-by-side
Can be many miles apart:
Long ago some great divide
Shattered fusion of the heart

Outwardly they are as one
But internally in shreds
Woven webs, no longer spun,
Are forsaken over-spreads

Perfunctory performance
Camouflages make-believe
Ostentatious conformance
Gives relationships reprieve

Propinquity concurrence
Substitutes as cohesion
Habitual contingence
Conceals the secret lesion

Couples who onetime did coax
Come to lament their duet
Conspirators of the hoax
Fabrications they abet