ON CATCHING MY HUSBAND WITH A CIGARETTE AFTER SEVEN YEARS OF ABSTINENCE

It is not the smoke that
coils around your head
in the garage where you’ve
retreated with coffee and theTimes
for an early morning butt
that so startles me.
No, it is merely your expression--
the tacit admission
we seldom dare to make
That there is always
a life we hold in secret--
unknown, ungovernable,
fiercely unpossessed.


first appeared in The Sun