She Wins This Time Poem by RIC BASTASA

She takes my mother-in-law
She knows what weakens her
And she wrecks
What used to be smooth
She plants the wrinkles
Of this legal relationship,
Then she will be taking
My wife
And there will be pain
Inflicted somewhere
Somebody gets hit so badly
She does it
She sees to it that it will be me

But no one knows it is her wrecking
Every dream I have, every plan I set
Every posturing

She wins, I give her a win
This time and tomorrow she still wins
She takes everything from me

But I have no worry at all
She is instrumental to my perfect plan

On the day that I enter this house
And mingle with her
My only plan is to be out of the door
To walk out from this floor
I could have jumped out of the window
Or break open some walls
Or take the ceiling to the roof
Where I can breathe
Where I can be out from here
And be gone with some drifting clouds

With her it was so unnecessary
She does it for me
She does it all for me
And with the thinking that she is winning this game

And this time, sorry to tell her,
This time I win.