New verse by Wellington writer James Brown

 

End

 

For five fucking years and fuck

knows how many fucks

he was fucking my friend and

she was fucking my husband.

 

Angry? Do I sound angry?

These things happen. That’s what he said.

Marriage is a journey and

sometimes you reach the end.

 

Thanks for that. But you can’t just turn

your feelings off like a tap, can you?

The quiet evenings drip long

into the night. How do you change

 

a fucking faucet? I hate him most

for being only practically right.

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From the new collection of verse Floods Another Chamber by James Brown (Victoria University Press, $25), available at Unity Books.