Married People Poem by gershon hepner

MARRIED PEOPLE


Married people tend to be more pleasing
than single ones. Far harder to engage,
their selfishness must be forgiven, seizing
attention from the singles they upstage,
secure since they’ve been taken by a man
or woman, and unthreatened if you try
to have them. If they think they can,
they’ll play with you, or keep you on stand-by,
but if you’re lucky, and they yield to you,
you’ll feel more special than when you tie in
with single people, who’re less fun to screw
since making love with them is not a sin.
Sex can rarely blow the mind unless
it is transgressive, which is why I warn
all people: marriage is a game of chess
where knights take wives, with wife exchanged for pawn.

Jane Austen in “Mansfield Park” makes two statements which inspired this poem:
An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.
Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.


8/4/08