c.2026 Rod Ice
All rights reserved
(2-28)
Saw my ex-wife by chance
While shopping with an electric cart
I did not recognize the sight
Though her voice gave me quite a start
Her build was slight, not stout
She wanted to find out
How I had been
And I felt nothing
We had a dozen years of history
And married for eight
A complicated crack-up, romance and wreckage
The end did not turn out to be so great
And when we finally parted
That personality soon departed
Replaced with no clues
And I felt nothing
Our courtship had been intense
A quick affair and escape
Broken homes and hearts behind
We walked boldly through the garden gate
But those fantasies failed to satisfy
I soon began to realize
A trick had been played
And I felt nothing
That teacher of a Sunday class
Morphed into a Wiccan crone
I heard her confess a change of heart
Late at night on my cellular phone
The name she wore was there
But what identity did she wear?
A transfer of the soul
And I felt nothing
I recalled the days when seeing her stride
Filled me with the urge to touch
But now there was a wrinkle, wrong
I could not feel that cardiac rush
A flatline pulse kept me dead
Not a tick of lust in the heart or head
Her memory had faded
And I felt nothing
Perhaps the lack of love I know
Is better for a guide to grasp
Decoupled from the princess bride
No longer there to caress or clasp
She came and left at a rapid speed
Left me hobbled on my knees
But wiser in the end
And I felt nothing
When she left the shopkeeper’s lair
I had to wonder about our meet
It seemed impossibly odd to think
That we had once taken vows, complete
In a church with lace and frills
A sanctuary up on the hill
Her wedding ring soon pawned
And I felt nothing
A dozen years and more have passed
Long enough to give me pause
A black cat purred where she used to lie
I got the sharp edge of her claws
I felt foolish, a sense of loss
Stammering stupidly at the cost
Of a whirlwind chase
Yes, I felt nothing
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