Her Latest Affectation

He wakes up besides himself, she’s beside the phone
Asking him to leave she says she wants to be alone
He wonders how a heart could turn so quickly into stone
That only hours before was soft and tender
No one has to tell him twice, he knows the score
He walks on down the hallway as others have before
Whose letters lie unopened on the table by the door
Each one labelled please return to sender

And she turns up the radio and tunes it off the station
And sinks into her latest affectation

Outside on the pavement beneath the fading stars
He tries to remember where it was he parked his car
It could be nearly anywhere he thinks it isn’t far
So he takes a chance and heads towards the sunrise
He reconstructs the night’s events and puts them into place
He recalls the way she moved and the look upon her face
When her senses were exploding as they locked in the embrace
Of lovers anticipating goodbyes

And she lies back and thinks about another situation
Deep into her latest affectation

He observes the patterns, he notes how they recur
How he’s always drawn to women that make him think of her
With a certain way of walking and a taste for lace and fur
And he structures different ways to treat them badly
With some he plays the father, with some he plays the child
He tells them things he once told her and remembers how she smiled
Sometimes he’s indifferent, sometimes he’s beguiled
But he leaves them when they say they love him madly

And she surrounds herself with clowns
Who watch with fascination
While she demonstrates her latest affectation

Sometimes when they meet outside office hours
To analyze the weaknesses of those who bring them flowers
The distances dissolve and they climb down from their towers
And flirt briefly with the kind of love that could be
He knows it’s just for now but for now he doesn’t care
With her head upon his shoulder and her dress upon his chair
Then he thinks about the men she loves when he’s not there
And remembers things are never what they should be

And she turns up the radio and tunes it off the station
And walks back to her latest affectation