THE SECOND MARRIAGE REARS ITS HEAD
BUT DOES NOT ATTACK
One night in bed, slowly,
in between blackouts
and screaming matches, lamps hurled,
knives and ripped upholstery,
we ate a box of ginger snaps
as we stared at something
on TV, two mumbling,
fat and happy zombies,
and chased the cookies with cold milk,
languorously. We sipped,
the better to savor a little
sweetness on our lips
TO THE DEER THAT GLANCED OFF MY CAR UNHURT
Thank you. It was just a tap,
a startling reminder
that I must return before it is too late
to my own woods,
where the sudden movements of my life
have hurt the ones I love the most,
where perhaps confession
is taken in a tongue
like moss, wet, forgiving,
by a pond so deeply hidden we forgot it
and nearly died of thirst.
Mark Jackley is the author of three chapbooks and a full-length collection is forthcoming from Plain View Press. He lives in Sterling, VA, “…and God help me, work for a cable company.”
