The happiest moment in a woman's life
Is when she hears the turn of her lover's key
In the lock, and pretends to be asleep
When he enters the room, trying to be
Quiet but clumsy, bumping into things,
And she can smell the liquor on his breath
But forgives him because she has him back
And doesn't have to sleep alone.
The happiest moment in a man's life
Is when he climbs out of bed
With a woman, after an hour's sleep,
After making love, and pulls on
His trousers, and walks outside,
And pees in the bushes, and sees
The high August sky full of stars
And gets in his car and drives home.
 
From Valentine Place, published by Scribner. Copyright © 1996 by David Lehman. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Poems by This Author

A Little History by David Lehman
Some people find out they are Jews.
A Quick One Before I Go by David Lehman
There comes a time in every man's life
Autumn Evening by David Lehman
The yellow pears hang in the lake
French Movie by David Lehman
I was in a French movie
Operation Memory by David Lehman
We were smoking some of this knockout weed when
Postscript by David Lehman
He wrote the whole novel in his head
Shake the Superflux! by David Lehman
I like walking on streets as black and wet as this one
The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke by David Lehman
Can't swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat
To the Author of Glare by David Lehman
There comes a time when the story turns into twenty
When a Woman Loves a Man by David Lehman
When she says margarita she means daiquiri
With Tenure by David Lehman
If Ezra Pound were alive today