Second Marriage Getaway Car

You’ll give the jeep the name of a schoolgirl
and paint her engine red. In the parking lot
you leave a playing card, a heart for someones’ dashboard,
the way a serial killer or monogamist might

attempt at getting caught. Summer will become fire
truck scarlet somewhere else, but next to her,
can’t get next to you, the radio had its way
of always complaining. Your valley became
ill with bad plumbing and stagnant wells
or will simply be sick of you, that old house balanced there
on the hill, above a mysterious brown trickle.

One day a man with rolled sleeves
shows up on the doorstep, delivering
knock-off filet mignon from the back
of a milk truck, and you’ll be like an ambulance
driving badly, all the while hidden
in the back, on the inside, all of this
trying, against physics,
to patch the blood back in, to unstop
the sinewy organ that will all go wrong,
part again of the same dream in which you are

plastering over a blue-veined demon
of a snake, sealing it back inside of the tiled wall
from which it grows, wet and dreadful and still
until you’ll drive for months and there will be tracks
in snow along the sidewalks, salted into slush
that by summer will steam the valley into haunting mist
around hairpin curves. You’ll be back

in the HOV lane alone and steering
through the silvery light where your death is that slowly
developing photograph you’ll try
ruining in the wind, stripping
yet another set of gears
until all that’s done is done.

Life-stepping

Step one: Grow up traumatised.
Step two: Build a normal life.
Step three: Marry a stable guy.
Step four: Tear it all down and start over.
Step five: Die traumatised.

Husband.

A husband is a male participant in a marriage.
A married man.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula
for being a wonderful husband.
I've been surprised by the number of times
people will search "annoying husband"
or "My husband is annoying."
Whether you are a husband looking for advice
or a woman looking for the perfect husband,
this is the place to be.
Tell your husband you are leaving for a couple of days,
and then wait, listen, and watch.
You married your husband for a reason
and committed to spending your life with him.
You have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Something is not right,
but you can't figure it out.
The position of the husband in the home
and his responsibilities to his family
are quite clearly defined.
Encourage your husband to reduce expenses
and save money.
Place a long-recording digital tape recorder
under your husband's car seat.
A couple goes into an art gallery.
They find a picture of a naked woman
with her privates covered only with leaves.
Monitor your husband's cell phone.
Press as many buttons in his call log to notice
any strange numbers.
There are 7 signs your husband is cheating.
Be prepared.
This year, I realized more than ever
what had been missing.
It was you. It always was.
It always will be.

Altared

We were married in a pool of winter sunlight.
Warm and unexpected,
a gift in a dark season.

Too young to know we should have gathered the sunbeams,
we broke the glass instead of filling it with gold.
We carried the darkness with us
over the threshold

and into ourselves.