And Day Brought Back My Night

It was so simple: you came back to me

And I was happy. Nothing seemed to matter

But that. That you had gone away from me

And lived for days with him—it didn’t matter.

That I had been left to care for our old dog

And house alone—couldn’t have mattered less!

On all this, you and I and our happy dog

Agreed. We slept. The world was worriless.

I woke in the morning, brimming with old joys

Till the fact-checker showed up, late, for work

And started in: Item: it’s years, not days.

Item: you had no dog. Item: she isn’t back,

In fact, she just remarried. And oh yes, item: you

Left her, remember? I did? I did. (I do.)

“And Day Brought Back My Night” first appeared in Poetry, Aug. 2004 (vol. 184, no. 4).