Dave Bonta's "Breakup" is a tiny poem about the moment a relationship stops working, told through the failure of speech. The speaker hears the "first words" die, as if the opening of a conversation, or perhaps the first words ever spoken between the two people, can no longer survive. They take "a strange turn / into thin ear," which suggests that the words aren't really being heard. They vanish into a listener who isn't taking them in.
The second stanza looks back. The "common years" the couple were "merry in" now "go cold," and the speaker is left with "prayers / to be mulled." That last phrase is open to reading. The prayers may be hopes or regrets that the speaker will keep turning over, like wine that is warmed and spiced. The mood is quiet, chilly and wistful. Nothing is shouted. The loss feels more painful because the poem is so spare and restrained.