Messengers of a God
who seems to be angriest at nightfall
when only daughters walk
down the aisle on their brothers’ arms
instead. What hasn’t been taken from us
by now (or it too would’ve gone
the way of the flatware)
must be genetic. The difference between
inheritance and inheritance:
what you can quit or be quit of—
curtains, pearls, words once
half-dressed in concern
Presbyterian to the point of incomprehensible
after noon. What you can quit, be quit of
and what, of course, you can’t.
Madnesses on that side of the family
passed from one century to the next,
for example. Fear
what’s lying in wait
in our wives’ if or when
it will wax red and rise bone-white
dragonish, drawling. Fore-
knowing the trauma, entering on it
with full consent of the will and why,
if she’s nothing but a madrigal and then some,
should we not hope for dahlias?
The rent is due at the end of each month.
At the end of each month,
the same question,
sleeplessness—and yes, novenas,
TV, nausea.
