Tuesday, November 26, 2013

To the Gods of Marriage

Anna Karenina came after Emma Bovary.
Thank the gods of marriage,
for whom Anna carried through her suicide
with a certain elan
Emma could not equal–under a train
or via poison, what’s your pleasure?
If you’re Flaubert you won’t live long enough
to learn how a Levin and his family
could dispel the boredom of the doctor
and his bored wife.

Instead, you lay in bed listening to the river
as your mistress Louise Colet
told you the facts of marriage
you evaded all your life with whores.

(26 November 2013)

copyright 2013 by Floyce Alexander

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