Poem: The Poet’s Wife

Sometimes I post my poetry here on my blog. I still have the painting mentioned in this poem, which is I am showing here.

The Poet’s Wife

The poet’s tiny wife suffered from the cold.

I gave her my fiancé’s Chinese jacket,

It fit her but could not obscure her homeliness—

none of the owner’s beauty transferred to her.

During the studio sessions for her portrait

the poet’s wife said, “The day I met the poet,

I cried on the museum steps knowing I would marry the stranger.

I didn’t want to divorce my husband and abandon my children.”

But that’s what she did.

When I finished her portrait,

She said, “I didn’t think you could pull it off but you did.”

I hung the portrait at Life Café at 10^th and Ave B.

Dancing at the frozen bar on Saint Mark’s Place,

She said, “Keep your hands out of your pockets the next time you dance.”