Oh God, when is he coming home to us?
In his absence, our marriage is unmasked
as a sham: it is him and him alone we love
when the chips are down, and in the hour
before dawn this morning, she finally asked
“Would you stop puncturing my womb
to fire blanks into an empty chamber?”

Since nymphhood, stories of masked hunters
terrified us into hiding in the tightest creases,
but who breathed a word about the threat
of our host traipsing off to who knows where,
and no one ever moving in to take his place?
My wife says, “Soon we'll have to go ourselves,
out to the roof, into the gutters—look for birds
or squirrels or something with a meal in them.”

I shudder at the thought! We never dreamed
such a misfortune could befall us, we seemed
so safely middle-class, our bed so snug, its fruit
so sweet, the multi-colored sheets, ideal! Cold
now and hungry, eggless, almost emigrants—
and bored! No food, no sex, no sudden lights
to give hiding its flavor! Three months it's been.
I wish I could reclaim my previous exoskeleton.

The worst of it is wondering if it is true
we're insignificant. When you're on top
of the food chain, you naturally assume
you're the crown of creation, your soul
sublimer than your brainless prey's.
Then the rug's pulled out from under you
and you are prey yourself: doubts suck
the blood right out of all your hubris.

Humility, of course, is what the parson
has been preaching all along. I guess
he has a point. This trial and tribulation
might actually be luck—be good for us.
There must be a plan, must be a reason
why we all are stranded here, awaiting
the reappearance of our Providence.


===================
Bed Bug's Lament II http://www.poetrycircle.com/index.php/topic,15780
"bed bug's lament iii" http://www.poetrycircle.com/index.php/topic,15805
"Bedbug's lament: IV" http://www.poetrycircle.com/index.php/topic,15820
“Bed Bug's Lament (final)” http://www.poetrycircle.com/index.php/topic,15826

oooooooo this is so good!  love it so far.  will 'expand' later when i have more time.  love very much the first verse, and i'm sure there will be more.

cheryl

Thanks for dropping in!

tom, this is awesome.  have nothing to add & no nits.  understanding of it is clear.

allow me to say this without taking anything from what you've done here.  this is much like where i was going with my world war poem.  there was one particular line that struck me, then i read it again--and yes, it fits well.

in my poem, the husband's unfaithful is exposed.  that's the only difference, regarding the characters.  the setting is different too, of course, but the plan is there.

the one line which set my eye to whirring is this one:  especially the second line in verse 2, the rest of v2, and then many references in the rest of the poem.  you even used 3 months -- i referenced 3 days.

very cool and exciting.  knew i would love this when i sat down to take it all in.

cheryl 

oh wait!  just read line 2 again--our marriage is a sham!!

but i remember now on first read you might be talking about a different kind of marriage.  yeah that's it.

Cheryl, your comparison made me read "World War of 2015" with different eyes. Thank you for reporting in on this. Tom

moving from Workshop to Submit board...

A poem about evolution. This poem can become stronger if you tighten it up a bit. Take out the unnecessary words.
You have some good stuff going like Crown of creation...

Karina
http://karina0011.blogspot.com/








http://karina0011.blogspot.com/

Karina, thanks for looking in and letting me know what you found in this poem. I think I'm going to add something to title. Tom

You've set my cliche detector bleeping, Tom: the chips are down; rug's pulled out from under you; breathed a word.  But seeing as it's a narrator, it's maybe the way she thinks and so I maybe shouldn't be running this up the flag-pole, opening a whole new ball of wax and be tarring everyone with the same brush  ;)

Yes, I see them! But out of the mouth of a bed-bug, Peter, I find them charming. My twisted mind, I guess. Tom

sometimes the bed bugs bite well.

had to take another look at this.

here's a bump from a bug.

cheryl

A delight Tom, wonderful how you gradually reveal..... Poet as Gypsy Rose Lee, there's a thought!

k

Thanks, Kevin. Reread poem as striptease, made me wonder if strippers ever incorporate putting their clothes back on, in their show. I'd go for that. Tom

Ok.  All I can give is what I take from this.  I suspect at the opening line, God is the he the N is need of coming home.  The end line of poem makes me think I've suspected correctly.  The bed bug mention in title is a big question mark for me -- no idea what it refers to unless the N is a bed bug of exceptional talents.  I think I can't or shouldn't continue with comment just now -- I think I need to fold clothes and do some ironing and then come back and reread with a different set of thought patterns . . . but, I will post this, just so you know I've read a few times and am wondering, wondering . . .

;)

Thank you, Lynn! Changed the title again, should help. Tom