print previewback KAT MEADS
P’town Triolets for the Poet Maisel (1942–2006)
1
Words are guards, so words are wives.1
In a divorce, take the washer and dryer.
Laundromats waste lives.
Words are guards, so words are wives.
Steal the bacon. Hide the knives.
Head for water if your child fears fire.
Words are guards, so words are wives.
In a divorce, take the washer and dryer.
2
The truth that’s in your head. Get it out.
To be unwanted is also to be free.2
But what about? But what about?
The truth that’s in your head. Get it out.
By whatever means, by whatever route.
From Texas plain to Puritan sea.
The truth that’s in your head. Get it out.
To be unwanted is also to be free.
3
The mass of silent girls,3 the absence.
Miss Jane and Poet Carolyn at the bar.
Whiskey is truth. Vodka, license.
The mass of silent girls, the absence.
A fisherman’s bar in essence:
All welcome, door ajar.
The mass of silent girls, the absence.
Miss Jane and Poet Carolyn at the bar.
4
Poet Carolyn writes her mind, not heart.
Life must be unpeopled at its center.4
Otherwise the mind will fly apart.
Poet Carolyn writes her mind, not heart.
By now her ex has made a start.
He’ll reach the Cape by winter.
Poet Carolyn writes her mind, not heart.
Life must be unpeopled at its center.
5
Easy stories drive out hard ones.5
When he finds us, Miss Jane
He’ll dress our daughter like a son.
Easy stories drive out hard ones.
He’ll insist we go on the run
Disappear on outbound trains.
Easy stories drive out hard ones.
When he finds us, Miss Jane . . .
6
Miss Jane lends her hideout shack.
All families are creepy in a way.6
Miss Jane’s ex took another tack.
Miss Jane lends her hideout shack.
Money drove his counterattack:
The bills Miss Jane must pay.
Miss Jane lends her hideout shack.
All families are creepy in a way.
7
But what do you say to this argument?7
No two should live as one, no three.
Women once girls: polite, compliant.
But what do you say to this argument?
A daughter is a sacrament.
A daughter is a she.
But what do you say to this argument?
No two should live as one, no three.
8
What the fuck, said Poet Carolyn. Let him come.
Certain humans are situations.8
Others play dumb.
What the fuck, said Poet Carolyn. Let him come.
Beat the battle drum.
Enough with contemplation.
What the fuck, said Poet Carolyn. Let him come.
Certain humans are situations.
9
Language is always a matter of force.9
The obstruction of words. Why not try that?
Those who never marry, never divorce.
Language is always a matter of force.
Husbands, too, can be outsourced.
Write a line, make it fat.
Language is always a matter of force.
The obstruction of words. Why not try that?
10
If he stays, will you leave? asks Miss Jane.
The female faculty for anticipating.10
A daughter’s father/an ex-wife’s bane.
If he stays, will you leave? asks Miss Jane.
Cresting the dunes: dog, man, cane.
A man, not the. Darkness procrastinating.
If he stays will you leave? asks Miss Jane.
The female faculty for anticipating.
11
I am what I was, but a man came to me.11
Waiting, the Poet recites to waves.
First there’ll be a shopping spree.
I am what I was, but a man came to me.
Wigs, hats, assumed identities.
A spate of calm before the rave.
I am what I was, but a man came to me.
Waiting, the Poet recites to waves.
12
Exes are overthought.
Nothing really happens until it is described.12
Overthinking leads to overwrought.
Exes are overthought.
This is not what daughters should be taught.
To dwell on men, to ascribe.
Exes are overthought.
Nothing really happens until it is described. 
1 Lyn Hejinian
2 Germaine Greer
3 Claire Tomalin
4 Susan Sontag
5 Phyllis Rose
6 Diane Arbus
7 Fyodor Dostoevsky
8 Lyn Hejinian
9 Roland Barthes
10 Colette
11 Anna Akhmatova
12 Virginia Woolf