II

Clara

AT sixteen she was a potential celebrity

A

With a distaste for caresses.

She now writes to me from a convent;

Her life is obscure and troubled;

Her second husband will not divorce her;

Her mind is, as ever, uncultivated,

And no issue presents itself.

She does not desire her children,

Or any more children.

Her ambition is vague and indefinite,

She will neither stay in, nor come out.

III

Soirée

UPON learning that the mother wrote verses,

U

And that the father wrote verses,

And that the youngest son was in a publisher’s office,

 Prev. P 45/99 next