Old Haunts
What is it with old haunts – you can’t resist?
Try as you might to block it out,
you are just biding your time, waiting to strike,
to steal the apple from the tree, to peek
through the living room window
at the woman you once lived with. You wonder
who she is sleeping with and why?
Is he the better lover, carer, provider?
What of your place as head of the household?
It hardly seems fair another man
has taken your place, as easily as changing
one’s slippers, and now eats like a prince
in what was once your kitchen, then strolling out,
takes an apple from the tree you planted
before he was ever a twinkle in her eyes.
Signal the Moonlight to play as you pass by,
dishevelled, disgruntled and still unnoticed.
Mark A. Murphy’s first full length collection, Night-watch Man & Muse was published in 2013 by Salmon Poetry, Eire.