(Mimi and Rick)
When he left
he left her with nothing
but her solitude.
And anger,
along with countless charge card payments
and a crippling anxiety about growing old alone
as well as a certain fear of pathogens.

He left her with an embarrassing attraction
to hairy shoulder blades
and a vast technical knowledge
of free scat porn.
He left her frustrated
and furious
and with no ride out of the Berkshires.

What else?
Let’s see:
he left her broke
bummed, buried in debt
broken down and beat upon.
He left her alone
– which should have been obvious from the start –
and he left her lonely.

But with him gone,
she soon realized,
he’d left her
with another thing,
but that item
she could thank him for
were he ever to show his wretched head again.
He left her free.