Those Trotskys of relationships,
perpetual revolution their motto,
their impatient hearts
dangerous to all that’s settled-
I understand them perfectly
and also why someone they’ve left behind
might travel all the way to Mexico
with a pickaxe to put an end to things.
It’s human nature, after all, to want
to put an end to things.
And to start up again.
“Because you can’t teach old dogs new tricks,”
Dinah Washington said,
“you got to get yourself some new dogs.”
She was explaining her eight husbands,
and this was an argument for nine.
If I’d known any one of her old dogs
no doubt I’d understand why he might
have just wanted to lie on the couch
and go for short walks.
I’ve wanted to do nothing
as often as I’ve wanted to rise up,
rush into the night.
Falling in love produces such anxiety,
my friend says, thank God there’s sex
for some occasional repose.
He lives for scattered episodes
with one woman at a time.
I understand that too,
as I understand year after year
doing a few same things
in the same house with the same person
famous for not letting you down.
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