My Ideal Man
This is what happens, nine times out of ten.
I nurtured fantasy, neglected fact.
I fell in love with an idea again.
I think I might prefer ideas to men.
My dreams had all the qualities you lacked.
This is what happens, nine times out of ten:
I meet a man I hardly know and then
I improvise his words, how he’ll react.
I fall in love with an idea again,
In safety, in my mind’s protected den.
Then truth intrudes, with neither charm nor tact.
This is what happens nine times out of ten.
You were the perfect notion once, since when
Your real-world counterpart has stalled and slacked.
I fell in love with an idea again,
One I invented with my heart and pen
Who wasn’t you. Grand romances contract.
This is what happens, nine times out of ten.
I fell in love with an idea again.
From Pessimism for Beginners (Carcanet Press, 2007).