Husbands
_____________________________________________

Who are these men?

They say I hired them, owe them wages.
They know the delicate handling of trees:

One describes himself and his friends
At my snake-clogged well lowering buckets—

Inside this house, chocolate and winter stir.
I refuse to remember family I had.

Off to the village: medicines,
Drinkable water, and the grocer

Who sells such items proposes
To cut my hair, repair my house.

He knows just where the bedroom paper peels—
Three ragged violets at the southeast corner—

How often he must have slept there—but with whom?
I’ve lived in that house alone, and always.