Not Tonight
Deep in the middle of the night
The phone rings. She answers,
Knowing that it could only be bad news.
She sits in the bright light of her bedroom,
In tears, in pain,
In need of her lover.
She calls his number
Needing to hear his voice…..
Instead, she hears his wife’s.
Not tonight. She can’t share him tonight.
She’s been his lover for years,
Spent years alone, waiting for his call.
Every morning she wakes up alone.
She can’t be alone tonight.
She needs him to help her fight.
She sits in her car under the streetlight
Staring at his home, with the wraparound porch,
And him, asleep with his wife.
No. Not tonight.
She stands on his porch,
Bangs on his door and cries out his name.
No. Not tonight.
She can’t share him tonight.
She won’t share him tonight.
Roy W. Backes
© 1999
Roy W. Backes - Poetry 