Diminishing
Returns
by
C.B. Anderson
Almost every day
conventional romances
gasp and gutter
like spent candles
placed in sconces
tended by old
saintly women
lost in trances,
and it's easy
to forget that
all he wants is
just a chance
to seem a bit
too young and
eager,
knowing all the
while at least
one half the battle
turns on getting
by with scanty
funds of meager
charm, or what
amounts to superficial
prattle.
Men are at a disadvantage
when it comes
to
managing exchanges
such as this because
she
always has the
upper hand and
turns the thumbscrew
any time the slightest
little mention
does he
make of how the
willingness she
showed in other
times (before
the wedding) went
a whole lot deeper
than the circumspection
counseled by her
mother
(long before he
wondered whether
he should keep
her).
©
2007
by C.B. Anderson
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C.B.
Anderson
was the longtime gardener
for the PBS television
series, The Victory
Garden. Many scores
of his poems have appeared
in dozens of print and
electronic journals.
His e-chapbook, A Walk
in the Dark, can be
read on the website
of The New Formalist
Press.
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