A man who has a wife

A man who has a wife
sleeps as though he has none.
When sleep won’t have him,

flesh makes him love
one only from among all
second persons,

female and male.
Dreamless sleep graces those in it
with an equity that
doesn’t know sex.
The man bears to his wife in sleep unspoken

neighbor-love and no more,
he’s made
no promises he can’t take back.
Some promises are

faith-instilling.
They lend to the one who keeps them

an ease that turns

diseased when they fail.
It can happen that a wakeful man corrupts and does
something he hates.
He knows it all

day then: against the
shame he is
there ought to be a purge.