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Married Man's Song | Al Purdy

canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca · 374 words · saved by 1 readers

When he makes love to the young girl what does the middle-aged long-married man say to himself and the girl? — that lovers live and desk clerks perish? When neons flash the girl into light and shadow the room vanishes and all those others guests who checked out long ago are smiling and only the darkness of her may be touched only the whiteness looked at she stands above him as a stone goddess weeping tears and honey she is half his age and far older and how can a man tell his wife this? Later they'll meet in all politeness not quite strangers but never friends and hands touched elsewhere may shake together with brush of fingers and casual eyes and the cleanser cleans to magic whiteness and love survives in the worst cologne (but not girls' bodies that turn black leather) for all believe in the admen's lies In rare cases among the legions of married men such moments of shining have never happened and whether to praise such men for their steadfast virtue or condemn them as fools for l

Canadian Poetry Online | University of Toronto Libraries | Al Purdy UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LINKS Canadian Poets, Contemporary Canadian Poets, 19th Century Representative Poetry Online Al Purdy : Poems Biography / Poet Home | Poems | Writing Philosophy | Publications | Criticism | Other Information Married Man's Song Al Purdy From: Beyond Remembering - The collected poems of Al Purdy . 2000. When he makes love to the young girl what does the middle-aged long-married man say to himself and the girl? — that lovers live and desk clerks perish? When neons flash the girl into light and shadow the roo

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