On Dating A Woman Not Your Wife Poem by RIC BASTASA

oh i know how it feels

i wear black
a coat to blend to the night
when i date
a woman not my wife

i imagine a room
a bottle of champagne
a glass

i imagine i undress myself
have my shower
with her
together

we clean ourselves with soap
and water
at the hotel

and then we wipe ourselves
with a clean white
towel

and we spray perfume
to our warm bodies
we imagine
we sleep tonight
and do
the things we have long imagined

we imagine
we wake up the following morning
some light
filtering in
the venetian blinds

some lights
stab our eyes
and we feel the hurt after
the pleasures
that even outside the room
of the hotel that night

we still imagine
sometimes we imagine we have no guilt at all
but it is always there

we still imagine
and we imagine we can sleep soundly

on eyes closed
we travel somewhere else thinking about the first paradise