Outline of a Theory

Crisis

It was unbearable alone.

That coquette he kept flirting

with finally fueled devastation.

He had figured that she could deal with it.

The open marriage was their mutual idea.

But he was alone in bed now.

The realization was sudden:

Simone was screwing around, too.

He scorned the double standard but

her first orgasm was from someone else.

She had written a book about it.

Nausea

In that moment, in the deep dark

of his bedroom, he lit a pipe

and it glowed with toxic luminance, and

Jean Paul adopted a philosophy:

Be not ashamed.

He would not be emasculated.

Everyone knew he had many lovers.

Be not ashamed.

Surely, this was rolling with the punches.

Surely this would remove those horns.

Essence

Ultimately, they went on. She came back

The open marriage had been their mutual idea.

Everyone knew they had many lovers.

He wondered if she ever thought of him,

in the deep dark of another lover’s bed.

Existence

Xenophilic American girls said they liked his accent

He smiled and was charming.

His bed was full.

Sometimes he would stop and think

“Youth’s a stuff t’will not endure”—

a song from a Shakespeare play—

bur he had sex with them anyway.

Afterwards, he would light his pipe,

with its toxic luminance and

Zephyr would cool the evening air.