WOMEN'S DIVORCE GROUP

She claims her ex was a filament of a man.

She’s just met—online—a monument of a man.

Our red flags sprout.  Watch out!  Don’t overcorrect!

Does he honor her independence—this brand new man?

Does he know her favorite drink’s an Irish car bomb?

And who is his government—this powerful man?

One woman draws her sari over her arm.

She says she’s done with them—who needs a man?

Another bends toward her fistful of tissue shards.

Oh God—she’s done it again—with the wrong kind of man.

We hoist her up.  We scan each other’s faces.

I refrain from admitting to them that I’ve met a man.

I’ll slip off to meet him after our court adjourns,

relax in his paws—unrepentant—this warm and dangerous man.

Debra Bruce will have a new book, Survivors' Picnic, published in July by WordTech Editions. She has had poems published in The Atlantic, Measure, Prairie Schooner, and other journals.