Response To Excuse 2 (Have To Work Late) Poem by Lorenzo Costigliolo

Now, dearly beloved,
when you within my furrow sowed
your loving, fertile, squirming seed,
and it became an entity -
the better parts of you and me -
I did not then neglect your need:
to bounce your uglies on my flesh
and baby felt your every ounce
as home from pounding on your job
that birdie, soft so oft you pounce -
in my name -
Ha! Do I laugh or do I sob?

Ahh, fool, you thought I didn't know?
- what used to be a stiffened mast
hung now too soft, drooped, flaccid, low -
for me too slow, for her too fast?

The plumber came without a sound
(He's deaf and dumb you know)
and now he's gone - but friend's around -
the blind one with the cane in hand -
he'd rather lie with me than stand
along the begging path - demand
attention with his sign:

'Blind Love can't see the faults in you,
surpasses what those sighted claim;
My other senses better do
to touch, feel, smell, hear all the same.'

And I thought about you, my dear,
and took him to our shallow bed
to feel the Love is Blind again,
to know he loved me as I am -
and not for just the words you said;
his gently fingers prodding me
his tongue and lips, distinctive reach -
not him, but you, his entity -
Oh, Lordy, Lord! The Blind can teach...

But, have no fear, my darling dear,
I loved the blind and deaf and dumb,
it's all for you, while waiting here -

now baby's gone and I am numb
with greater need for lover's face
(as you have said, it's no disgrace)
to keep a love at work and home
while I bereft, you need to roam?

Ahh, sweetness, keep your
two or three or four;
and I with...
well, who's keeping score?