No Mercy

Your wives left

without a trace

Both of them

They plucked

their long hair

from the kitchen sink

did not forget the ring

nor the domestic combs

Not one stray stocking

did they leave

Not a fingerprint

nor a subscription

to a magazine

They fled

Gathered their feathers

and bobby pins and string

Left nothing

Took their towels

and their initials

one child

expensive shoes

and vamoosed

Without a clue

You must’ve said

something cruel

You must’ve done

something mean

for women to gather

all of their things