[Gail White]

Requited Love


Here is the way they rose and bathed and fed
In silence, and in silence got undressed,
And microwaved the supper each thought best,
And meant the words the TV actors said;
Here is her naked hand outstretched in bed
To soothe some dreamed-of other’s knocking chest,
And here her present body, seldom pressed
Awake to his, and here his snoring head;
Here are the things they thought they had to fear,
The figure at the far end of a glance,
The lovely hair’s retreat, the veins’ advance,
The skulls a little clearer every year,
Neglected taxes, mice, the common cold,
Shares held too long, the child they’d never hold.