
Splitting Up the Books
Pudding Magazine #60
When the marriage is over,
no one wants Jane Austen.
Happy endings taped up
in a cardboard box
to be given away
to others, sight unseen.
When a marriage is over
the poetry books are cold
leftovers, no one wants to claim
as read or to be read
on summer bed sheets.
O love, be fed with apples while you may.
When a marriage is over
it seems frivolous to fight
over comic books. Small
paneled stories of right
and wrong, with easy villains.
Even the good guys wear masks.
When a marriage is over
no one wants the science fiction
futures so dazzling
with probable improbabilities
it is embarrassing
how much you wanted to believe.