Love As Tragedy, Part I
I see her there in our backyard,
Pushing our youngest on the swing,
Were it just six short months ago
She would’ve been my everything.
Back before I could understand,
Before the scales fell from my eyes,
Before the truth of our marriage
I did come to realize.
Six months ago I was working
for an architectural firm,
we were making big skyscrapers,
plentiful money did I earn.
But then a big client left us,
and the money became real tight,
me and eight others were laid off
after that nothing did go right.
At first Monica was smiles,
“You’ll find another job, you’ll see,"
but the market wasn’t that great
so things didn’t go that smoothly.
The first interview went nowhere,
she said,”You will get on in time.”
The second ended just the same,
she said,”Well something you will find.”
After two months the support waned
and annoyance came to her eyes,
so I did part-time in fast-food
to bring in some cash on the side.
I thought this would make her happy,
it was money and it was work,
she just snarked,”Yes, all little girls
dream of marrying fast-food clerks.”
After that it seemed every night
she would give me a snide comment,
until the first fight erupted
that she purposely did foment.
Every night was the same refrain,
how I had fallen short and failed,
every day I pounded pavement,
but it seemed to no avail.
Before long I slept on the couch,
and all chance of sex was gone,
she couldn’t look at me without
implying that I had done wrong.
The damnable thing about it
was that my wife herself did work!
We had no danger of starving,
but she still made every day hurt.
I even caught her late one night
flirting with some ex online,
she just shrugged,”At least Danny still
Is getting paid for his time.”
At this point, five trying months in,
when It seemed my life would be robbed,
a rival firm gave me a call,
then offered me a full-time job.
It didn’t pay quite like the last,
but I was making ample coin,
that night we did have sex three times,
Monica no longer looked annoyed.
At first I was glad just to work,
grateful to cover all my costs,
but as the weeks went flying by
something continued to feel off...
CONCLUDES IN PART II.
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