Thursday 3 October 2013

X-Ray Judgement




Overheard: I know what she’s getting out of it, but what’s in it for him?

Where it took me: First of all, you know other humans can hear you, right? I’m pretty sure what’s in it for either of them isn’t your business. But now it’s my business, too. And I can’t help but wonder, as I often do, why we spend so much energy trying to decipher other people’s lives.

 
The poem  

X-Ray Judgement

Maybe he was tired of cooking for one.
Not that he could really call it cooking,
after a while. An apple. A can of soup.

Maybe he gave up polite conversation
for the chance at one baby,
and hit the jackpot
when she stuck around and gave him two.

Maybe you see the money,
the house, the cars, the beaches;
and not the chest torn ragged
by things she lost
or left behind.
Maybe she has her own money.

Maybe in the quiet that settles
when children are in bed
and kitchen counters are wiped clean,
when the fridge hums like comfort,
he offers backrubs
that unpoison her arrows;
she tells him she is sorry.

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