Saturday Mornings in CinCity

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I (Heart) My Wife
By Darlyn Finch

"I (Heart) My Wife"
the bumper sticker read
in the window of the pickup truck
ahead of me at the red light,
and I burst into tears
for no particular reason
I could explain
to the crossing guard on the corner
or even to the man driving the truck,
who looked quite ordinary,
and did not realize
those four happy words
could rip a woman's heart out
under certain circumstances,
when she's one man's abscessed tooth,
and another's dirty little secret.

Then I stopped to wonder,
as I blew my nose
and wiped my eyes,
whether the man had bought the bumper sticker
at all, or if his wife had perhaps
stuck it there,
in the window behind his head,
as a message to women like me,
whom she surely knows are sitting
at every red light
in every town,
wishing they could one day be
someone's very best thing.


And, while you're driving around town today,
here's a sampling of some hometown favorites,
Over the Rhine, from their new CD, the Trumpet Child.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 4, 2008 at 7:53 AM

    Wow--so much buried in these simple lines, the best being the agony of being one man's abcessed tooth and one man's dirty little secret. Those tears mark the pain of betrayals on both sides of the front door.

    And the universal desire to become or remain "someone's very best thing."

    The universal disappointment not to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. La FraméricaineOctober 4, 2008 at 8:20 AM

    I do so love that in the midst of it all you manage to post poetry. I barely manage to empty the waste baskets and garbage cans, so getting my poetry fix at your house is always nice.

    Thank you again.

    BTW, I thought of you last night after seeing "Blindness" and then going to a small kiosk and being, as I am wont to, distracted by shiny (colorful, glass) objects, buying them, and putting them in the holes in my earlobes. Tantamount to an injection of euphoria without the withdrawal.

    Amitiés,

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 13, 2008 at 6:13 AM

    So nice to see that Darlyn's poem touched your heart. It is from her collection Red Wax Rose. (www.redwaxrose.com, also available at amazon.com)

    She is a great lady and her words have touched the hearts of many. That poem is one of my favorites as well.

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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