POETRY WEDNESDAY/FRIDAY: As part of my warming-up exercises for writing fiction, I sometimes write Spenserian stanzas about the characters I’ll be dealing with. The tight form of the stanza forces me to carve out phrases I wouldn’t come to without the formal constraints, and imposes a precision and compression on my language that is generally alien to novelists (esp. in the age of 500-plus page blockbusters). Here’s one for a piece that may or may not eventually be titled “Mexican Honeymoon.” It’s about a newlywed couple and the way that each spouse uses the other to reinforce his or her own self-image. This desire to use does not completely crowd out genuine love, but it is opposed to such love. And I think it’s pretty common.

“I love you when you’re less like me!” she cried–

Displacing all her anger on his gun.

He holstered her; he cradled her; he lied,

Protected her from knowing what he’d done;

And let her feel superior. It’s good fun:

She got to be the good girl, have her strong

And silent man; he got to be the one

Who got the good girl. Is it really wrong?

They’re not too kind, but they’re determined to last long.