DAY 8 of Poetry Month - SANDWICH NEGOTIATIONS

SANDWICH NEGOTIATIONS

Marriage is like sharing a sandwich. It requires the same kind of blind faith.

You have no control over which half you get, and the knife slices indiscriminately.

Hence, things are divided into halves, and “have-nots”.

An unpredictable result can occur, entirely unhampered by fairness issues or lack thereof.

Such as which “half” got the meat and which “have not “ got the lettuce.

Catch my drift?

A woman can smell like chocolate and brandy,

Can have a voice like Marilyn Monroe whispering sweet nothings to Joe DiMaggio,

She can taste like the first draw on a fifty-buck Cuban cigar,

And have skin that, to the touch, is like the down on the throbbing breast of a nightingale.

The little woman can look like Miss Universe,

Be a temptress in the bedroom and a saucy slut in the kitchen,

But if she didn’t negotiate the deal in advance,

To make sure she could use her x-ray vision

To see through the pumpernickel or the whole wheat or the toasted rye

And check out on just which side of the Panini the melted mozzarella landed,

Or to get a little jump on shoving the tuna fish a bit to the left,

Then she’s sniffing up a blind alley.

I myself, the original “negotiate up front” gal,

I showed up with, in my opinion, a whole bunch of chicken salad

And not an inconsiderable amount of mayonnaise,

But that lettuce winked at me and said, “Pssst…over here…have I got a sweet deal…”

And I bit down with vigor.

The Purple Heart of optimism is its own tragic reward,

And purple has never been recognized as a healthy color for the human heart.

So, no medals for exercising excessive trust or naivety in these negotiations.

Those who do so enter at their own peril, and usually have the scars to show for it.

Hence, know that the moving, serrated knife cuts, and having cut, moves on.

Ay Caramba. L’amour…c’est tragique. Da. Yah. Duh.

And every day, in the international market place of human relationships,

In negotiations all over the globe, behind seductive smiles and inscrutable scrutability,

The march toward the building of a better, more equitable sandwich continues.

Tuna fish on the move, shifting piles of pastrami, pickles on parade.

Know in front, and accept that this is the prize with which you must be happy:

Acting on blind faith alone produces perhaps a few hours, days, weeks, of bliss,

But in the long run, all of Marilyn’s sweet nothings brought her to just that:

Sally StevensApril 10, 2020