For Fun

It is a profoundly disconcerting experience to confront the reality that one's partner has referred to another woman as a "baby."

He called her baby
the word fell soft,
like dust on a forgotten piano.

He called me that too,
and the echo still wears my name.

I do not rage
I sip my sorrow slow,
as women did
when their men turned
to another beauty.

Let him play.
I’ve learned
some hearts break
not with thunder,
but with laughter
meant for someone else.