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1. A Widow
Widowed at age 60,
They asked why
She didn’t cry
She didn’t act the part.
She didn’t go to the wake,
They asked where she was
They forgot to ask
Where he had been.
They mourned a dead body,
But didn’t lament
The slaughter of a heart
The rupture of a home.
2. A Divorcee
She built a big house
All by herself.
They asked why
She needed a new abode.
She smiled like Mona Lisa
Mysterious, enigmatic
How could she explain
Her need to stay sane?
Building a new house
Is picking up the pieces
Clinging to life
Hanging on to hope.
3. A Wife
It’s worse than a toothache
It’s more awful than a migraine
It’s more terrible than vertigo
It’s more devastating than cancer.
Being Twice Cheated!
There’s no dentist for this pain!
No doctor for this headache!
No neurologist for this giddiness!
No oncologist for this malignance!
She feels a raging wrath
An urge to burn down
The locus of the crime
Till a child cries out: “Mother!”
And she cries out
To Heaven up above,
“Father, forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us!”