Contents

Saying Yes to a Drink
She is young, and dreams of giving herself over.

Father, R.I.P., Sums Me Up at Twenty-Three
She is critiqued from beyond.

Long Weekend at Your House
Sometimes female friendship is truest.

November on Her Way
She professes renewed passion against the coming chill.

She Was Waiting to Be Told
Her heart revealed to him, at least in part.

She Thinks of Him on Her Birthday
In which she recalls her father and forgives herself.

An Idle Thought
Married at twenty-one, and her mind may wander—

On the Road to Getting You
but she invariably returns to their inverted passion.

The Firemen
A love poem to nobody in particular;

3:00 A.M. Comedy
to her husband asleep;

The Boss
to an older man whose kind regard was itself a form of love.

A Working Girl Can’t Win
She takes notes as another of her sex is condemned.

The Widow’s Sex Life
Her mother’s lot.

I Answer Your Question with a Question
Here we go again (again);

You Prune Your List in Summer
and again love doesn’t go as planned, yet there is perverse consolation in solitude.

Her Majesty Loses Her Touch
She lies awake feeling older but not necessarily wiser;

Maybe There’s No Going Back
and despairs of taking passion seriously, now she sees herself clearly.

Please Fire Me
The desire for oblivion runs high at the office.

Superior
She is rude and subversive, but holds her tongue.

Fight Song
She may have the last word yet.

The Warning
A letter (undelivered) to a man she might have known better.

Happily Married
A confluence.

Perfectionist on the Beach
Her oldest friend can still disturb her mind.

Atlantic Wind
The mischief in the air seeps into her.

A Friendship Enters Phase II
Her newest friend turns the night inside out.

A Kiss
in memory speaks volumes.

Husband, Not at Home
A different kind of adoration.

Worked Late on a Tuesday Night
Not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.

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