10.27.2020

she is his selection

It’s a little Walden. 
She is private in her breathbed 
as his body takes off and flies, 
flies straight as an arrow. 
But it’s a bad translation. 
Daylight is nobody’s friend. 
God comes in like a landlord 
and flashes on his brassy lamp. 
Now she is just so-so. 
He puts his bones back on, 
turning the clock back an hour. 
She knows flesh, that skin balloon, 
the unbound limbs, the boards, 
the roof, the removable roof. 
She is his selection, part time. 
You know the story too! Look, 
when it is over he places her, 
like a phone, back on the hook. 

[Anne Sexton {1928-1974} 'You All Know the Story of the Other Woman', from Selected Poems]

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