evenly and ivory
in her raw recollection
she reasoned helplessly
at least one of us is wrong
to labor and to love
and to endure childbirth
knowing the worst
would come before the best
should have driven her
to adore one like him
*
the wind reeked of dust
the seeming and the looking
the fumbling and the fidgeting
she could not bear his weariness
so they slept by turns of the screw
and when the nightshade lifted
the cock crow blared
as the morning flared
through a horizon
of tawny sludge
*
she could not help
but rust away
she sat all about
staring at the floor
yawning scornful wrinkles
revolving around her eyes
she had long since learned
to draw a stringent line
between devotion unearned
and sentiment prepaid
*
her mind closed stubbornly
against all remembrance
you have taken an oath before God
for better or for worse
his muzzle made demands
that she acquire his version
of what their life in tandem should entail
yet in the most insufficient of remarks
he could sustain no veracity
his corruption concealed
submerged by shameful disquisition
if he had died
she might have lived
