one couldn’t just
come out and say it,
mouthing lyrics to
"oh, where, oh, where"

could one, in variations
on the cloister
this year all the rage.

Mom’s back at home
in the church.
what’s a man to do,
married to the kids.

one could go whatever way
one’s arm was being twisted

straight back to that place
where they named their dogs
after the drinks they had,
before they did you know what

letting her clean that up for him

2.

there is a place somewhere
for no need
to sit on your hands, all day long

to kick off shoes
in more than resignation
to tomorrow

the early protector for the mattress
was baby-blue,
spoke when you moved

your new sham,
featuring fig-leafs

Douglas A. Martin's most recent books are Branwell, a novel of the Bronte brother, and a collection of stories, They Change the Subject.  His first novel, Outline of My Lover, was named an International Book of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement and adapted in part by The Forsythe Company for their multimedia dance-theater piece “Kammer/Kammer.”  He is also the author of two collections of poetry and a co-author of the haiku year.  In 2008, he will publish Last Early Poems and a lyric prose work, Your Body Figured.