Free Will Is Best

by Brett Rutherford

     After a note by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1838

Explaining her ever-
attentive spouse
to a friend-confidante:

It was quite some years ago,
you see — the two of us,
one at each end
     of the house, and one
at the other — my kitchen,
     his book-piled den.
Iron-willed we were
     in mutual detestation.
He might have taken an axe;
     I might have learned poisons.

Then quietly, discreet
as only a Boston lawyer knows how,
we were silently divorced.

So here we are.
He lives at his club.
He brings me gifts,
I give him favors.
Each day is a first —
     at will, the last.

It’s a great deal of fun
and keeps both priests
and hangman away.

Look, here he comes,
grinning with expectation.
Is that ruby? And only one?
I might just feign a migraine.
Look none the wiser, my dear.