HOW MARRIED PEOPLE ARGUE

Because they disagreed on nuclear

disarmament, because he’d left

the grass uncut, because she’d spilled

a milkshake on his golfbag,

he raced ten miles faster

than the limit.

Stiffening,

she scowled for him to stop it.

His answer was to rev it up

to twenty.

She asked him why

a man of his intelligence would

take out his ill temper on a car?

He shouted in the name of Jesus

that he never ever lost

his damn temper.

She told him

he was shouting—not to shout—

that shouting was a sign of no

intelligence.

He asked a backseat

witness totally invisible

to anyone but him why women

had to act like this.

She muttered,

“Men,” as if the word were mouthwash

she was spitting in a sink.

Arriving

at the party, they postponed the lethal

language they were saving for the kill

and played ‘Happily Married.’

Since all the guests were gorging

on chilled shrimp, the fake went

unobserved.

She found a stranger’s

jokes so humorous she almost

choked on her martini.

He demonstrated

for the hostess how she could

improve her backswing.

All the way

home they played ‘Married

and so what.’

She frowned as if

the car had a disease.

He steered

like a trainee, heeding all

speed limits to the letter,

whistling “Some Enchanted Evening”

in the wrong key, and laughing

in a language only he could

understand.

At midnight, back

to back in bed, he touched

the tightness of her thigh.

She muttered,

“I’m asleep,” as if her permanent address

were sleep.

He rose and roamed

the darkened house, slammed

every door he passed and watched

a prison film with George Raft.

Abed at dawn, he heard

the tears she meant for him

to hear.

He listened and lay still.

Because they both had round-trip

tickets to the past but only

one-way tickets to the future,

he apologized for both of them.

They waited for their lives to happen.

He said the hostess’s perfume

was Eau de Turpentine.

She said

the party was a drag—no humor.

Word by word, they wove themselves

in touch again.

Then silence

drew them close as a conspiracy

until whatever never was

the issue turned into the nude

duet that settled everything

until the next time.

Download PDF