Did we live a double life?
I would have said
we never envied
the epic glory of the star-crossed.
I would have said
we learned by heart
the code marriage makes of passion –
duty dailyness routine.
But after dark when we went to bed
under the bitter fire
of constellations,
orderly uninterested and cold –
at least in our case –
in the bookshelves just above our heads,
all through the hours of darkness,
men and women
wept, cursed, kept and broke faith
and killed themselves for love.
Then it was dawn again.
Restored to ourselves,
we woke early and lay together
listening to our child crying, as if to birdsong,
with ice on the windowsills
and the grass eking out
the last crooked hour of starlight.
Eavan Boland
Eavan Aisling Boland
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thank-d-be-fortune/
