The Other Life

Now for the other life. The one
without mistakes
— LOU LIPSITZ

My wife is in the other half of this mobile home
making a case against me.
I can hear her pen scratch, scratch.
Now and then she stops to weep,
then — scratch, scratch.

The frost is going out of the ground.
The man who owns this unit tells me,
Don't leave your car here.
My wife goes on writing and weeping,
weeping and writing in our new kitchen.

— Raymond Carver