Howard Firkin
All right. I wasn’t always faithful; nor
were you. It’s true. When I went looking for
the answers no one’s found, you didn’t teach
me anything I couldn’t learn from each
of other sad addictions: so I left.
I left and told the story to the less
than caring few who asked or tried to guess.
I lived the ex-life, heard of you through friends,
and bent my loneliness to suit my ends:
an agile cripple, blind and dumb and deft.
You’ll say that this remains a young man’s game.
You’re right, of course, and yet I celebrate
that lovers are alike, but not the same,
and every love that starts defies its fate.
were you. It’s true. When I went looking for
the answers no one’s found, you didn’t teach
me anything I couldn’t learn from each
of other sad addictions: so I left.
I left and told the story to the less
than caring few who asked or tried to guess.
I lived the ex-life, heard of you through friends,
and bent my loneliness to suit my ends:
an agile cripple, blind and dumb and deft.
You’ll say that this remains a young man’s game.
You’re right, of course, and yet I celebrate
that lovers are alike, but not the same,
and every love that starts defies its fate.
