The Student's Wife

A poem about an adulterous wife.

the student leered at her: his wife
now nude and sleeping, snoring, drunk, dark
shadows cast across her concave abdomen,
the light emitted by the small television
seeping over a cold, hard nipple,

soon to lactate, her womb now occupied,
a child who will possess her insidious
features and none of her husband’s,

and whilst she sleeps, unknowing of his knowing,
the poisonous scent of alien aftershave
emanating from her neck, her clothes, her legs
spread open, her husband’s trust for her
rapidly dwindling and her love for him decomposing,

she reaches out her arm and awakens in an empty bed,
her husband in the living room glaring at her through frigid
eyes, the television on yet silent, textbooks shut, judging her,
hating her; loving her - and suddenly an overwhelming sense of
guilt sweeps over her and she smiles, ushering him back to bed