Did we live a double life? <br /> I would have said <br /> we never envied <br />the epic glory of the star-crossed. <br /> I would have said <br /> we learned by heart <br />the code marriage makes of passion – <br /> duty dailyness routine. <br />But after dark when we went to bed <br />under the bitter fire <br /> of constellations, <br /> orderly uninterested and cold – <br /> at least in our case – <br />in the bookshelves just above our heads, <br /> all through the hours of darkness, <br /> men and women <br />wept, cursed, kept and broke faith <br /> and killed themselves for love. <br /> Then it was dawn again. <br />Restored to ourselves, <br /> we woke early and lay together <br />listening to our child crying, as if to birdsong, <br /> with ice on the windowsills <br /> and the grass eking out <br /> the last crooked hour of starlight. <br /> <br /> <br />Eavan Boland<br /><br />Eavan Aisling Boland<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thank-d-be-fortune/
