John Halladay
Phrygia has an ugly husband
(though she is a beauty).
The substrate to that unlikely mixture
is an amalgam of riches and patronage.
To own paradise one merely has
to be able to buy paradise,
or pay someone to buy it for you.
Some of us can do that.
Marsaeus is a rich man
(for the moment)
and an ugly one
yet he is married to a shrew
and an ugly one.
That’s his punishment for being who he is.
The gods have a sense of humour
and he is their big fat butt.
My wife is a shrew, too,
from some buggered-up hole
in a disagreeable continent.
That is where I bought her.
She is greedy and vulgar.
She hates my guts.
Surprisingly, I love her.
The gods have a different way
of joking with me.
They do it with the respect
of which I am worthy.
These things even out:
though she is a beauty
Phrygia has an ugly husband
The substrate to that unlikely mixture
is an amalgam of riches and patronage.
To own paradise one merely has
to be able to buy paradise,
or pay someone to buy it for you.
Some of us can do that.
Marsaeus is a rich man
(for the moment)
and an ugly one
yet he is married to a shrew
and an ugly one.
That’s his punishment for being who he is.
The gods have a sense of humour
and he is their big fat butt.
My wife is a shrew, too,
from some buggered-up hole
in a disagreeable continent.
That is where I bought her.
She is greedy and vulgar.
She hates my guts.
Surprisingly, I love her.
The gods have a different way
of joking with me.
They do it with the respect
of which I am worthy.
These things even out:
though she is a beauty
Phrygia has an ugly husband
John Halladay lives in the south of England. His first collection, Letters From Ravensbruck, was published in 2003 by the University of Sheffield Press.
Page(s) 30
magazine list
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- Second Aeon
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