Jane Routh
Heart-Shaped Strangers
He edged in front of the shelf
and slipped it under a book. I looked
when he went out of the room.
Pretty enough. A heart-shaped face,
but young: it might have been a school photo
from a corner of her mother's mantlepiece,
head dizzy with teenage romance
and eyes shining with the belief that love
justifies everything.
That was years ago.
Later I heard she'd settled down
and had a family of her own.
It happens to us all:
there'll come a time after her own children
have left, the man will leave too.
Perhaps she'll pick up his jeans for the wash,
and when she looks at what's fluttered to the floor
a young stranger will smile back up at her.
If she remembers herself as a face slipped
between pages, there will be much to forgive:
the men, the heart-shaped strangers.
and slipped it under a book. I looked
when he went out of the room.
Pretty enough. A heart-shaped face,
but young: it might have been a school photo
from a corner of her mother's mantlepiece,
head dizzy with teenage romance
and eyes shining with the belief that love
justifies everything.
That was years ago.
Later I heard she'd settled down
and had a family of her own.
It happens to us all:
there'll come a time after her own children
have left, the man will leave too.
Perhaps she'll pick up his jeans for the wash,
and when she looks at what's fluttered to the floor
a young stranger will smile back up at her.
If she remembers herself as a face slipped
between pages, there will be much to forgive:
the men, the heart-shaped strangers.
Page(s) 42
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