Playing Safe Poem by Lonnie Hicks

It was the Playing Safe
there in her mirror
the terrible sameness
of her life
her routines
her husband
her friends
her lovely children
her home
all there in place
yet her soul
did not feel fed
aching regrets
lingered there
unknown regrets
because of what
had not happened to her
was unknown to her
she had no idea
what that would be
yet she ached
for something to happen
to her.
In college
she had stories to tell
adventures to relate
to friends.
For years now
she had nothing but
baby stories
work stories
husband stories
sort of the Loneliness
of Routine
of a sense of time passing
and just ahead
she sensed
she would be at that edge
when nothing would ever change
she could see that in the mirror
she could see the Passage of Time there
the Hard Lines growing
the gentle thickness
in the wrong places
the sense of a downward slope
of a grinding boredom
oncoming
inevitable
and innervating
to where she
could she herself
gradually
turning into her mother
old
energyless
disappointed in how her life
turned out
pushing her daughters
to end up better
than she had
obsessed with her garden.

She decided
she would have an affair.