28

Divorce

It started with marriage
sans forethought past familial appeasement
to prevent "living in sin."
We were two veterans already disabled
from festering wounds
of this ongoing war
with each other, ourselves.

The worst was the waiting up
past his 5am requested curfew,
lying in bed alone. Or
the 3am phone call from a taxi cab driver
refusing him service till I came down and paid
for him to stumble upstairs,
drunk and lipstick smeared face
and not ever after
any apology.

My marriage had no armistice,
no peace treaty, no asylum, no refuge.
My marriage was the U.S. in Vietnam--
no victory, no admittance of defeat, but
at some point,
there is no more point, no option
but to withdraw.