29 - the Contract--------------------- -------------------------
| HIS... THE CREATIVE DIVORCE SETUP |
the nesting marriage over
the youngest bird ready to fly
both my wife Billie Barbara and I
after twenty years of fidelity
amazingly, within 11 days of each other
and unbeknown to each other
broke the vows
she with an artist while I was on the road
and I with a young career woman
in the Midwest
the comical night that it all came to light
found us unable to be angry
with each other
I mean how can you get mad
at someone for doing the same thing
you've been doing... you can!
so we sat on the edge of the bed
comparing notes
laughing
and wondering where our own
relationship had gone sour
from my male point of view
the only guilt I had
was over the fact that at long last
I finally understood what Billie
had wanted all those years
when asking for my full attention
I really thought she'd had it
until I saw myself
unable to pass a phone booth
without rushing in and dialing
a Chicago number
and buying silly dime store gifts
to be delivered
as I flew through O'hare airport
Billie Barbara in the meantime
out to dinner
with her new gentleman friend
experiencing the kind of closeness
that can happen when a devoted lover
cuts the choice piece of meat
from the center of his steak
putting it on her plate
something she had not received from me
in twenty years of marriage |
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30-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
and I learned much about time
during this brief interlude
for being involved deeply
with the young woman
and knowing that the plane
would fly in the morning
had me making the most out of every
stolen moment
and like a terminal cancer patient knowing
there was but a few months to live
I began to look up and see the sunset
again
but then every human relationship
that has ever been and will ever be ENDS
and I really began to get a grip
on this fact of life
I had become the maintenance man
to Billie Barbara
and she the big nurse to me
but talking through that night we realized
that there was
an undeniable closeness between us
resting on things
like waiting in hospital halls
to learn whether our son would die
after the motorcycle wreck
and yet, undeniably our new loves
had filled us with a zest that we had lost
somewhere in the maze
of everyday living
but rather than live together
as dead people like Robert and Nancy
or kick it all in the head and split
we decided to see if we couldn't find
another alternative -
a way to put the sunsets
back into our own relationship
the following is our attempt
hammered out of our own lifestyle
and personal needs
we do not think of it as
an open marriage contract
rather creative divorce
or perhaps a better description would be
beyond divorce |
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