Lee Krasner, Charred Landscape, 1960, Denver Art Museum

 

She didn’t say I was a bore 

she didn’t say she didn’t love me any more

she just said that with me

she didn’t want to live her life.

 

There was no other man

there was no other plan

she said, so she said

I didn’t know what to say in return.

 

I feel on reflection

that my sense of rejection

would have been lesser

If she had confessed to having another lover.

 

During our time together

was she constantly wondering whether

her sentiments were true

or just a passing whim

 

Hers may not be an isolated case

many women in my space

have lost interest

in a relationship.

 

They have their family

they are okay financially

they have their friends

they have a roof over their heads.

 

Why complicate this paradigm

losing precious time

by having to contend with a man

and navigate with his different world?

 

I like to assume

I am not of this plume

that I am a 21st century man

despite being born in 1946.

 

I clean, I cook

I try to look

at my companion as an equal

I do not seek to monopolize her time or her mind.

 

But it seems I failed to address 

the concerns of my Malaga princess

she let me loose

free to create a new life

 

           - If indeed, I so can….