Honesty — A Poem
On the back of Hearts beating Kilmarnock 4–0 this evening, here’s a wee poem — completely unconnected with football — about jealousy and suspicion and infidelity. Perhaps infidelity. But that’s the thing about jealousy, isn’t it?
HONESTY
No,
you said
when I suggested the tall guy
with the reddish tint at the side of his head
with the eyebrows that met in the middle
with the slight stoop and an air of
defiant halitosis.
No, you said
and we laughed.
~
No,
I said,
at your suggestion, the short woman
up the road that kept her head down
as she passed and never spoke
and carried a tartan shopping bag
like an empty baby.
No, I said
and we laughed.
~
No,
you said
when I asked about your boss,
with his greying temples and distinguished
ears, free of middle-aged hair
and his American high school
teeth and a scary laugh.
No, you said.
We laughed.
~
No,
I said
when you mentioned friends.
All of them
and not just the women.
We laughed.
~
What about him?
I said,
and you looked
and looked away
and said
nothing.
