One night I ruminated on my rather fractionated relationships over the years. (Almost every time, she was a good bit older than I). Why did I not settle down with someone nearer to my own age. I am 62 and been married for 17 years, but there was no real passionate love there and since she had the Big H, no children either. I wrote this over 2 decades ago in about one hour.

Where the Nice Men Go

 

I.

 

Alas, your relationship has been split asunder

So long to the security you’ve felt you’ve known

All that time you sat and wondered

Now you truly ARE alone

He turned out not to really want to change

(A drunken coward, quite deranged?)

Or the felonious type that beats his wife

At least for now, you have ended the strife

With kids and/or heartbreak somewhat in hand

You ponder things you wished to know

“Where will I find a decent man?”

I will tell you where the nice men go

 

We seek not pity of our current plight

If even one who reads this gains insight

 

II.

 

In our youth we were excoriated and spurned

(Because we had the gall to treat you with respect?)

Or maybe it was the wages we earned

(“Nah”, you said, “I’d rather try to change neglect!”)

When we were young, we cried and were distressed

As we girded ourselves for an unwinnable war

To know we were at best second best

Yet still we tried, and cried, some more

Then we quivered in rage at the men you would choose

(And wondered how and why dysfunctionality had merit?)

How could you suffer their neglect and abuse?

But we stoically refused to share it

We strived, at the same time, to earn successes’ share

While we watched your choices wreak wrack and ruin

We focused on life; we didn’t live laissez-faire

(While wondering “Does she really know what she is doing?”)

 

But time heals well, all the wounds, scars, and welts

To neutralize and deaden the Angst that we felt

 

III.

 

Now we finally discovered the fault was not ours!

(We did not choose a mentally myopic view!)

As we now exercise our earned career powers

It is good we were schooled in the likes of you

Our cars still aren’t chic and our dress hasn’t much changed!

We’re still the same NICE and boring men as before!

But even though you may find this quite strange…

Most, if not all, of you we learned to ignore

Maybe we were shy, not assertive enough?

Amazing, though, a kid to father your kids!

(Yeah, that reprobate felon, all stony and tough)

Of that infantile behavior, we are well rid.

 

Has this filled you in with clues well enough?

Does my poetic effort show refined, not rough?

 

IV.

 

Alas, you were drawn to that nova like flame

That quickly sundered itself to ash

Ours burn less bright, but steady, not lame

That nova, like Crystal, sure causes a crash!

Now whenever we turn our thoughts to you

And of futures no longer dreamt

Since you paid back our honesty with much to be rued…

We hold all mercenaries in contempt!

We still hope for companionship, but we’ve well learned the score..

As we peruse with interest our scholarly tomes

It is life that we love; only you we abhor

So we wrote our experiences down in this poem

 

**sigh** and still you ask where the nice men go?

…If you still have to ask…you never will know

 

 

Timothy G. L’innomme

 

TimLin@NetTaxi.com