Sunday, April 15, 2018

His Business Trips

He’s got his business trips
And I’ve got my hotel weekends


Two days an hour outside of town
With room service
And a pile of books
I never read
You and I
Me and you
The two of us
Just us
Just me

Together


Tours of houses
Nobody’s lived in for centuries
And libraries
Divorced from museums


He’s got his business trips
And you’ve got your cooking classes
And your wine and painting nights
And your massage therapy
And your fancy luggage
For trips to places
You keep saying you’ll go
When he gets back
From his business trips


You’ve got your kids
And your friend’s kids
And your grandkids
And your pets
And the neighbor’s dog
And the neighbor’s plants
And your plants
And millions and millions
Of things to take care of
And watch over


And he’s got his business trips


You’ve got a lost cat
To locate


The posters are stuck on
Every pole
In a seven-block radius


You’re good
At finding lost things
And, sure enough
You find the cat
Behind a McDonald’s
Sitting happily next to a dumpster


So happily, in fact
That you almost regret
Having to return him
To the little boy
He belongs to


You’ve got coffee to make
And cakes to bake
And bakeries to visit
Where you sit
While it rains
And pretend you’re waiting
For a friend to show up
And have coffee with you


Look at your messages
And see a ‘Miss you, hon’
In your inbox


See several ‘Miss you, hon’'s
In your inbox
And wonder if he’s just
Copying and pasting at this point


Hear one of your friends
One of your more outrageously predictable friends
Suggest
That maybe he’s having affairs
While he’s away
On these business trips


And the truth is--

You wish he was

Because that, at least
Would be a reason to leave
Or consider leaving


The truth is, unfortunately
A lot less interesting


He just...enjoys the trips


He enjoys being away from you
And you from him
And the only thing
Standing in the way
Of full-on happiness
For the both of you
Is the fact that
Eventually
He has to come home


Return
From his business trips


And the anticipation of that return
Is enough to kill the joy
You both feel
When he’s away


He has his business trips
But you, you also
Have his business trips


When you don’t
When he’s home
When he’s sitting right there
On the couch with you
Looking at you like--


Well, what now?


You feel like at any minute
He’s going to run out the door
And never come back


And the thought of that
Doesn’t upset you
But the thought of it maybe happening
Rather than definitely happening
Sends you into a deep, deep languishing remorse


He has his business trips
And you have what you do
While he’s on his business trips


And the clock has the clock
And the luggage has the luggage
And the bed sits made
While the days fall off the calendar


He’s away
He’s away
He’s away


And neither one of you
Is coming back

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