Eight Years Poem by Rhys Owens

Girls always say to me:
"I have to be faithful to my partner
No matter what.
I have to love him, flaws and all.
I have to work to pay his bills
And mine.
Without me he would have to lay off the video
Games and the booze, and go out and get a job…
He's the only man I've ever been with;
Eight years, and all my life experiences
Relate to him…"
—No wonder you're depressed.

No wonder you cry alone most nights,
Listening to songs that remind you of him
The way you remember him in your fantasies,
The first two months you were together
Before he finally got you in bed
And stopped cutting-and-pasting love letters to you online,
Promising you a life that would forever be someone else's.

But if that's the life you want,
Go ahead and stick with it.
I know you believe in Heaven,
That you keep telling me how we'll be together
There, and then for all eternity.
But I somehow don't believe in "Heaven"
After hearing you talk about it.

I somehow don't feel
That a phony, lying faithfulness like you
Any longer has much control over the things you say.
Everything worth living for waits down the road,
In the future.—

The last eight years, she admits,
Prove that it's time for a change.

I ask her why she doesn't talk to her man about that.
And she says:
"I would. But I heard him tell his friends
He finds the sound of my voice annoying…"