Instincts

Like certain
men and women
of a certain age,
instincts do not care

to turn the page
and do not care
when pages
turn on them.

Instincts always think
they’re lovely in pursuit.
No wonder they’re
in disrepute.

I knew an instinct
once that thought it was
a milkmaid-Marie-Antoinette-
coquette; it wagered

it could make quite
any man succumb to it
without regret.
It lost the bet.

.