Looking through the notebook of poems
from 1991, I came across this one...
I don't remember whom I had in mind
when I wrote it.
DICK AND JANE
“What about Dick and Jane?” he asked
and waited to hear what I knew
Do they love each other still, or what?”
And he sat back as a friend will do
and waited for answer to his question
knowing I’d say something
he could use for answer, anyway.
“Well, they still live in the same house,” I said,
If that"s what you mean,” and stopped.
“I saw him running yesterday, charging
hell bent for leather down the road
as if to stay ahead of something.
He seems healthy enough.
He wasn’t smiling
if you’re trying to know if he’s happy,
but then have you ever known anyone
to run and smile at the same time?”
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“Are they going to make it as a family?
The kids are almost grown now.
There’ll be just the two of them in another year.
Will there be enough left to keep them together
When the kids are gone?”
“Does he love her, do you think?” I asked.
“Does he miss her when she’s away
the way a man should long for the sight
of someone he loves?
Does he wish she would go away
and never complicate his life
with questions and demands and expectations?
It seems to me his eyes are empty
when he looks up after she has entered the room,
and shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Shouldn’t they seems empty when she leaves the room?”
“And what about her feelings for him?” he said.
“She expected to be sustained by his love into old age,
and there she is at forty-five
without prospects for companionship
if he doesn’t provide it for her.
I think she drinks a little.
Is it to forget for not to remember?
“You know she drinks more than a little,” I said.
“She has always liked to smoke and drink,
and he hates it… even beer he really doesn’t like.
And she nurses a drink for several minutes
then downs it and goes for another.
I think she drinks to forget
that he no longer seems to care
if she is lonely or happy or well or not.”
And he looked at me and said
with finality of a eulogist,
“The end has come for them.
The woman he married no longer lives
to greet him when he comes into the house
and the man he was has died, too;
So they are just two strangers living together
trying to figure out why.”
