Rules Misread Poem by Ivan Donn Carswell

So I was wrong
it proves I guess I am
the kind of guy whose
outside the square thinking
determines where he gets
misinformation

Helen Rowland said
‘To be happy with a man you
must understand him a lot
and love him a little
To be happy with a woman
you must love her a lot and not
try to understand her at all’

It didn’t reach me except
as a woman’s oversimplification
of an impossible study and there
is the rub; I do understand the
woman I love but her happiness
won’t stay intact

I saw where Rowland’s words lead
in this infarct following exodus of the girl
who loved me a lot but understood
me not at all – and I claim foul
We were deceived by a call
from the rules misread
in another’s game