Domestic Situation
By Kathleen Lynch
The man who once wanted everything now wants
only his small room and a good radio.
His wife made yellow curtains edged with orange rickrack
for his windows. But now,
she wants the world.
The woman decides she is not a vessel, nor rib-sprung.
Oh, she feels. Oh.
Something furred and indifferent stirs in the shrubbery.
Oaks shrug their ancient shoulders while sun climbs
turning morning to noon to after.
The woman thinks: I have earned every line on my face.
I am due something.
She holds an apricot against her lips. The gold blush skin
feels like the flesh of a young lover. Her eyes close.
The juice tastes good going down. The pit—
a small, hard fact—lands in the garbage.
I won’t excruciate any longer, she thinks.
I’ll… I’ll leave. Could I be one of those women
who… just… go?
Not far away, the sea continues its devotion
to departure and return.
He dials the ball game louder… something
exciting is about to happen.
Kathleen Lynch is the author of Hinge (Black Zinnias National Poetry Prize), and chapbooks How to Build an Owl (Select Poet Series prize, Small Poetry Press), No Spring Chicken (White Eagle Coffee Store Press Prize), Alterations of Rising (Small Poetry Press Select Poet Series), Kathleen Lynch-Greatest Hits (Pudding House Publications-invitational series). Her work is widely published. Website: www.kathleenlynch.com
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