[John Whitworth]

5.

Your Other Women

Your secretaries, eager to assist you;
your colleagues, protegées, even your dean;
the shopgirls who, you joke, cannot resist you;
my own best friends; the maid who comes to clean;
the women whom you’ve charmed in conversation;
the students who adore you from afar--
how can I resent their admiration,
knowing, better than they, how good you are?

So pick your favorite starlets for your spree
and rent each film they’ve been in from the start--
I won’t complain. How can I say you’re wrong
to ogle blondes you swear all look like me?
For when our jobs require long weeks apart,
we both know what it takes to get along.

[Rick Mullin]

You got that right.
RM

[Catherine Chandler]

Biting. Sarcastic. To the point. Someone's going to read this and say "Ouch! "

[Mary Meriam]

Maybe there could be a companion poem: My Other Men. I remember this and know who wrote it. Nice work!

[Michael Cantor]

It's a charmer, it's well done - and I'm pretty sure I know who wrote it - but I can't help feeling that it could be even better. A bite more bite, some twists, a bit more of a sense of snark towards the competition, a few back-handed compliments to augment "better than they", could add more depth.

[Janice D. Soderling]

I've no idea who wrote this, but I wish it had been me.

[Lance Levens]

It may not be sarcastic enough--or at all.

[Ann Drysdale]

I don't think it is sarcastic. I think it misleads the reader into expecting ritual snark and becomes, instead, a mature reflection on "what it takes to get along." I think both people here are in collusion rather than competition. I like it because of this twist.

[Cally Conan-Davies]

The last line is where the reader comes in, isn't it? I mean, you ask yourself, what does it take to get along? I think I lean towards Ann's view of this - I think it's more thoughtful, more clear-eyed, than cutting. It hurts, for sure, there's pain here. But something more, too, something deeper that complicates it.

[Charlotte Innes]

Yes, Michael, Cally, and Ann are right. The poem cuts to the heart of the matter, but somehow there could have been more--although the last line is great. I didn't see sarcasm, but more a kind of rueful stance, also affection, with an undercurrent of anger. The usual complicated human mix Two people who've known each other a while. Or, as Ann says, "I think both people here are in collusion rather than competition." A good poem, but... doesn't entirely lift off, perhaps?

Charlotte