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
a 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 the Pond
—The title is from a poem called “East Coker” by T.S. Eliot in Four Quartets.
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