IX

susie came round
and is vulgar and loud and coarse
and wept in front of my parents
i was asleep though,
because the book about paris in the wartime
has too much written about duff cooper,
first viscount of noritch
and not enough about simone de beauvoir.
apparently duff cooper has a much more interesting life than the book is willing to explore
"they were the flowers, but i was the tree"
explained his wife to the children about all the viscount's extramarital affairs
and the deaths of all of his closest friends
and his medals.
susie is losing her children.