Duet from The Delayed Breakfast

I said to my love

Who’s that inside you

Kicking and twitching

It can’t be gas

Said my love to me

Don’t you remember

The spot on the chair

By the table? We breakfasted

Late at your mother’s that morning

We’d been to the opera

Heard the soprano

Singing her heart out

The tenor he loved her

It said in the synopsis

But not the way you loved me

That’s who’s inside

A tenor?

Nor yet a soprano

It was our vacation

We drove to the city

Arrived just in time

For the house lights were dimming

Next morning the sunlight

Sifting through courtyards

Lit up your eyes

Raised ideas that bedazzled

Belating the breakfast

My mother was sullen

The pancakes were sodden

Not crisp like they should be

But get when not eaten

She jumped to conclusions

That only my mother

When she makes me pancakes

Can reach and believe in

“To girls of good family

Not without warning

Before they have time

To take proper precautions

The cushion just back

From expensive upholstering

Come periods sudden”

The color was dark

The stain was damp

Who could have told

It was love

And love’s excess

Unless he were expert?

My mother’s no expert

We’ll call him Puccini

Or Wolfgang Amadeus

Perhaps you prefer

That his name be Fidelio

(A stain on the cushion

A stranger inside you

The President maybe

Hail to the chief)

Oh the get of our love

Made us late for breakfast

The Sun shining down

The Future just rising

Delectable morning

Delicious vacation.