The archetype takes hold of movie plot,
And shows us how experience—and not—
Can shape a man who’s finding his own way
Before adulthood finds him and holds sway:

The barbecues, the cars, the two martinis,
The pool party with women in bikinis;
The money in retirement, bottom line.
The rules that shape our lives by their design.

In walks a woman, throaty, sensual, bored,
Who’d like the rules above to be ignored,
To have some meaning—or some real effects—
And why not use the vehicle of sex?

This is the life suburbia has brought her,
And then her daughter, and her daughter’s daughter.

Come hear Kim Bridford read at the E-Verse Equinox Reading Series with Daisy Fried, Laynie Brown, and Paul Siegell in Philadelphia.