Emma Bovary

“Lorraine” by Molly Phalan

It’s easy to say she never
had a chance, married
to the widower, himself
a discarded table napkin, doctor or not.

Such are shortcomings. How else then
to harness Eros’s quivers except
to ask for them in a carriage to Rouen
or through misty fields on May mornings
when blossoms too
are dewy? Who but the writer
of her own love letters
has a chance for love?

Even if fairness cannot be found
in the heat of a curling iron or the duty
of childbirth, it is offered by a husband
who does not question piano lessons.

It’s easy to pity her for suffering
fortune’s consigned comb but she had

as much a chance as any of us
who stare through windows and covet
the buoyancy of cut twigs and a long river.
All of us wish for the take-away

but there’s no excuse for wasting
three good coffins and at least one lock of hair.

Amy Nawrocki is the author of six poetry collections, including most recently Mouthbrooders, published by Homebound Publications. Her memoir The Comet's Tail: A Memoir of No Memory was a Foreword Review finalist and the winner of the Mind-Body-Spirit Award from Living Now Books. She teaches English at the University of Bridgeport and lives in Hamden, Connecticut.