My Wife Invites Her Ex-Boyfriend to Lunch
/Joe Cottonwood
She tells me Justin had good jokes,
good manners, was a card shark
and a militant Baptist. They broke up
because she always burst into giggles
when he kissed her. She never told him why.
Giggled, she tells me now, because
kissing Justin was like kissing a pug.
So we meet. Justin seems shocked
to see she’s pregnant. Congratulates her. Us.
Justin has big lips and a fuzzy face.
Tells funny stories, has impeccable manners.
Says he’s married to a woman who wants to make films.
Not movies. Films. Says she has moods. Big moods.
Says she used to be political but couldn’t choose sides.
Says she covered their new wallpaper with tinfoil.
Says she subconsciously converted their apartment
into a dump because that’s what she was used to.
Says she’s bad at choices.
Like, look, (he laughs) she chose him.
So, my wife asks, do you love her?
At once Justin and I are both on alert.
Yes, Justin says. Yes, we kiss. A lot.
That’s good, my wife says.
After lunch,
we all shake hands.
Author’s Commentary: I like poems that tell little stories. I like the delicate tensions of loving relationships. This one I lifted from real life — with changes, of course.
Joe Cottonwood is a semi-retired contractor with a lifetime of repairing homes by day, writing by night. He lives under (and at the mercy of) redwood trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. His most recent book is Foggy Dog: Poems of the Pacific Coast. joecottonwood.com
