After A Phone Call With My Wife Poem by Max Reif

Nice to have a friend
somewhere in the world,

someone to hold my kite string,
whose string I can hold, as well.

When we were getting
to know each other,
I started to think, 'I love you' —
sometimes, in truth, 'I need you.'

Then, as we got more committed,
those other parts of us
started to show up,
like a suitcase full of devils
we'd each unpacked
once we'd settled in,

and I often thought,
'Leave me alone! '

Things run their course like that,
touching both opposites.

Sometimes I think of all
the former lovers in the world
who can't stand one another now.

Does their pride ever let them think
of how they breathed 'baby, baby! '
to this person now so detested,

and that there's something
crazy about that?

You and I have rubbed
against each other plenty,
but we've stayed with the process,

like the ancient Hindus
churning the Milky Way into butter,
who had to witness the demons
that came up on the way,

And today, quite spontaneously
after hanging up the phone, I thought,
how nice to have a friend in the world.