The Conjugal Fall - Onset


The lengthening stress-filled work week
to make ends meet
gnaws steadily at the conjugal deal
having little space left to feel
the wonder and awe of a two-in-one.
Now it’s haphazard on the run
while we question the amount of fun
supposedly sensed while it is done.

Leather, latex, any kinky device
erotic or porno, adds fire and ice,
spice, now that it’s gone bland,
what once seemed so purely grand
when there really was time and space
naked, alone and still in Grace
to disappear into that committed love
sacrament sanctioned from above.

Something is dangerously awry
remaining unsolved in the sigh,
divorce, vacuous trysts, alternate styles,
anger, angst and boredom’s wiles
slither slowly to unfold the knot
loosened steadily by second thought
proscribing an ignoble end : “let it stall!”
excuses abounding for the conjugal fall.


Peter Tetro received a classical education in Montreal. He has been a sightseeing guide and agent, construction worker, federal program administrator, teacher/counselor to native youth et.al. in many parts of Canada. Now retired, he is submitting poems written over the last 25 years that have remained works in progress. He is or will be published in Down in the Dirt Magazine, Vista, Pulsar Poetry Journal (UK) and StrangeRoad.