Sunday Poem

The Association of Man and Woman
.

Whatever badness there was,

sometimes
was not of us
but between us.

Because there was goodness,
which felt like a sure base.
While badness felt only
like incidents upon it.

The badness was only
the way you and I needed to behave,

sometimes.
Not what we were.

The badness was only
the small,
transient,
insignificant
pain,
like the tiny, instant
pain
from the prick of a rose’s thorn,
taking joy,
for a second,
away from the fragrance of the rose.

by Peggy Freydberg
from Poems from a Pond
published by Hybrid Nation
.