JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

Turning pages recommended

by expatriate widows and divorcees

never a word in first person

to tell about those lonely nights

 

Once a month on Tuesday afternoons

from five till seven is sufficient

to avoid rekindling those abandoned

passions, wicks of candles now burnt down

replaced with bedside lamps and

flickering push button dreams

 

On page two hundred, or perhaps

somewhere right at the end

you’ll find a faint smudge of lipstick

a small discoloration, where a

tear drop has almost

been erased with Kleenex