of suspicion. Usually we just stare at the rooks,
and he sips my beer without asking, then looks
deranged as if to say he’s sorry. He knows enough
about me to know I like diamonds in the rough.
And, strangely, he and I always notice the same things:
hieroglyphs in the snow, tiny holes in our fillings.
When he’s not around, my wife says he’s a blackguard
and a parasite, a charlatan, and a drunkard;
and I try to explain that he’s just the village idiot,
and that once in a while it’s necessary to sit
with him and share a pint. Later, when she falls asleep,
out of pity and out of love, I allow him to sneak
into her bed and fondle her thin white thighs,
and, if she doesn’t protest, to spend the night.
—first published in The Windsor Review