For Better, or Worse …
Dec 2 2009


She left him for another man.
In a town, not far away
— for the children’s sake,
for their absent father.

It was leave, or go back,
no middle way.
No way to love
2 men, at once;
which seemed to her, perfectly reasonable.

Or to appease the one
who felt rejected, stung
to have been abandoned.
Yet he made no fuss,
knowing his wife
her mind made up.

Because she firmly believes
that love is not a zero-sum game —
she has more than enough
for the both of them.
Nevertheless, someone always gets left
and someone, unavoidably, hurt —
her husband, at first
then her lover’s heart, burst,
when she returned
eventually.

5 years later;
and he took her in
no question.



This piece was inspired by the love affair between Glenn Gould and Mrs. Foss; who, 5 years on, returned to her former husband. The poem indirectly raises questions about the basic presumption of monogamy, of the heretical notion of polyamory.