I was in no rush to set the table, it is
just you and me who eat
Everything unchanged -
the lions at the door,
the carcasses on the walls
The ruins seeking passage now
have hung our fates on hooks
I’ve laid the sheets along
the coffin walls
and sealed them down, slowly
Here and there the marriage of our lives
is floating by
On old and blue charades,
a borrowed vase to walk the aisle
to the priest who loved my brother
And the island of Capri,
dresses to buy and keep
The happiness I never knew
The anger I could never show
The shame of all my life that I have kept from you,
and still
To live and live for years alone
is all I have to suffer
That is not so bad -
but better than to
have to live with you like this is
shame beyond all life
True, I am alone,
but with ashes in the kitchen
I have waited in this house
with my dead husband at the throne,
the setting silverware to count until
the end of all my years.