Delayed Gratification
by Lynda La Rocca
I once was happy at your side, but now
it’s over and past time for me to go.
I never did imagine that our vow
would bind you to me, still, it was a blow
to learn your roving eye had fixed upon
(for friends are ever eager to report)
a younger version of myself, a swan,
whose feathery, soft limbs give greater sport.
And so she joins your clutch of wounded doves,
to flutter on your arm until the time
you choose to shelve her, too, with former loves,
and add another victim to your crime.
There is no justice in this world, it’s true—
but in the next God waits, She waits for you.
Acknowledgment:
This Shakespearean sonnet was originally published in Lynda’s second poetry chapbook, The Stillness Between.
