Classic Poem

A friend calls us
an old married couple

I flinch
you don't mind
On the way home
you ask why I got upset
We are something
like what she said
you say I say
No

We aren't married
No one has blessed
this union no one
gave us kitchen gadgets
We bought our own blender
We built our common life
in the space between the laws

Six years
What drew us together
a cartographer a magnetic force
our bodies our speech
the wind a hunger

Listeners both
we talked

I wanted: your lean wired energy
control decisiveness
honesty your past
as an athlete

You wanted:
my ‘culture’
gentleness warmth

Of course that was doomed
You brought out
my anger I resist
your control your energy
exhausts me my hands
are too hot for you you gained
the weight I lost my gentleness
is dishonest your honesty
is cruel you hate
my reading I hate
your motorcycle

Yet something has changed
You have become gentler
I more decisive
We walk easily
around our house
into each other's language
There is nothing
we cannot say together

Solid ground
under our feet
we know this landscape
We have no choice
of destination only the route
is a mystery every day
a new map of the same terrain