The Man Who Gropeth Forever

At 5 a.m. Sunday he knocks on her door,
doesn't wish to remember the night,
but tells her the past tastes so bad

he's got no appetite for the future.
She gives him a hug and sits him down -
then realizes he's wondering whether she's

also wondering about a non-committal
caress of a deeper kind,
or shallower,

depending how you look at it.
She favours unconditional acceptance
as from a text-book

yet by instinct adumbrates
the loves of his life who've walked out,
leaving him 'amazed' but no wiser.

On one level she wants to talk
about love being a decision to commit...
but she doesn't wish to appear

puritanical, especially since her body
seems at variance with rightousness
and puritans are people who fear,

as someone put it, that someone somewhere
must be having a good time. On another level
she wants to get rid of him,

but he leaves anyway,
longing to be told that everything is double
that evil can be good, and good evil.