two husbands

1

I've never known you so charming,

sat in a green bucket chair

one eye narrow,

you have let the lilac trees take over.

I'm not living,
not quite dead,
yet, I've never known you charming!

We get on- beneath the lilacs,

the little one sleeping in the kayak.

In this picture, knees together, nodding

like a hyacinth, warming in the sun,

I secretly believe you are superior,

I still secretly believe you have won.

11

the very next frame,
the next shot,
the next breathe-
with nothing to hold me
nothing to stop
the fall
I free fall
plummet straight into hell.

(but the face wears its expression like an ill-judged outfit,)

I'm already there.

And hell is a thirsty place.