When we returned home from our honeymoon
I found my friend J.H. squatting in my house
How’d you get in here? I asked
He looked shamefaced
If you’d asked
I would have given you a key
J.H gave us an Etch-a-Sketch for a wedding present
A plastic kid’s toy, my new wife said,
already carrying our child
her voice heavy with scorn
But I understood J.H.’s idea—
in marriage one needs to be willing to shake the Etch-a-Sketch
to let go of things you once thought were important
in favor of the greater good
My wife never really got that
which may partly explain why we were divorced
before our child had learned to speak
