Slice of Wedding Cake, A

A Slice of Wedding Cake

Why have such scores of lovely gifted girls
Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.

Repeat ‘impossible men’; not merely rustic
Foul-tempered or depraved
(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world
How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate
Self-pitying, dirty, sly
For whose appearance even in City parks
Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God’ supply of tolerable husbands
Fallen in fact so low?
Or do I always over-value woman
At the expense of man?

Do I?
It might be so.

Robert Graves ©1964