Supposed to Love

                            -sonnenizio based on a first line by Molly Peacock

And nothing, not even that girl you love

will follow you into that even darkening: old age.

It’s an unreachable, shadowy cupboard that girl

you love, in her flip-flops and youthful distraction,

cannot begin to explore.  And she doesn’t even try,

just a feeble grasp at a handle, and then your love—

your affair—doesn’t seem glamorous anymore.  Even

the cabinets are bare; no riches, mystery, and nothing

you tell her will make you appear younger, stocked with life.

And nothing, no shiny car or stock portfolio or

even devotion, will keep that girl you love pressed

to your frail side as you become more insubstantial,

a stale cracker or bottle of tonic that’s gone flat.

Even your wife, the one you are supposed to love, knows that.