Outside

Through a little window

I see testimony

And wonder why they move

With no ceremony.

One bent like a willow,

Another’s mouth agape;

I do not disapprove,

I’ve the videotape.

Writhing, bent in limbo,

Neither husband, nor wife;

Oh, some kind of lovers,

Shades ’neath my palette knife.

The stage curtains billow

Containing secret acts

And darkness which smothers

Not a beast with two backs.

Looking In

The yearning compels me

To your little room, there;

I wander halls appalled

Hearing a whispered prayer.

Fantasy could not see

Or gamble to foretell

What I did or recalled;

I entered this strange cell.

I slid like the Marquis

In and out, “Other Man,”

And “Paramour,” they said;

“Come back here, when you can.”

I left an escapee,

Unfaithful, unfaithful;

My heart now like black lead—

My lovers ungrateful.