Classic Poem

1
'It takes restraint to nurture
a relationship. Haste and greed
finish it quickly: you eat through
all the good parts and then
there's nothing left to relish.'

2
The would-be husband
frowned upon my advice:
looking at his lovely fiancée
with mock-longing, he quipped:
'When I most long for her
she'll quote these lines,
as a shield against me.'

3
I thought of the logic
of bourgeois marriages:
demurely saying 'please wait' before;
'yes' only after the completion
of all the paper work-
and never being able to say 'no'
afterwards:
how law, custom, and culture
regulate the entrance
to a woman's body.

4
The problem is in what we feel,
not with what we do or don't:
it's the emotions behind our actions
that break hearts.
The woman who touches another man
can be taken back, "forgiven";
but what can you do when
when she's stopped caring for you
her heart empty or dead?

5
I used to believe
that truth saves relationships
and deception destroys them.
But I realized too late
that 'Human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.'
Perhaps, it's what
we hide that keeps relationships
while what we reveal
terminates them.

[From Partial Disclosure]