[Glenn Wright]

Hi, Jayne—

I enjoyed this sonnet. It does depend on a somewhat old-fashioned set of expectations for husbands and wives, but I am old enough to find some charm in that. As I re-read it, I find myself wondering if you didn’t slyly invite the reader to question whether the wife’s need to conceal her feelings is, in fact, a good thing. What happens to the “bad” wife when she goes away? Isn’t she really just imprisoned in the “good” wife? In that reading, the artificiality of the stock phrases “show her the door” and “Peace and contentment rule the roost” seem almost like a characteristic of the disguise that the “good” wife is required to wear in order to (as the saying used to go) “be a good sport.”

The expression “kick . . .into touch” was new to me, too. Thanks, Simon, for the gloss.

Thanks for sharing your poem and for all you do.

Glenn