an unrehearsed universe

Pit-Stop

“I but speak small truths bright eyes,”
and what she always surmised: being cherished
was not being beloved, adoration perished
at the hint of rough times ahead,
full steam seduction cancelled for a new production.
“Calumny, slander and lies,” asking his wife
to deny what she knew of life
and the evidence of her own eyes.
“Think of the children before you end this.”
He mounted a passionate play: the repentant husband
enticed into playing a risky hand,
a man in the throes of a harlot's sway.
That was where she came in:
a temptress dressed in educational innocence
a siren in the guise of a student
a necessary pit-stop on the road to a rake’s progress.