David W. Landrum’s fiction and poetry have appeared widely in such journals as The Dark Horse, 34th Parallel, decomP, Evansville Review, Dark Sky, The Chimaera, and many other journals and anthologies. His novella, The Gallery, is available from Amazon. He lives and writes in West Michigan, USA.
Summer 2011
Table of Contents - Vol. VII, No. 2
Poetry Fiction Translations Reviews
David W. Landrum
Post Coitum Omne Animal Triste
Post coitum omne animal triste—
all animals are
sad after they’ve made
love and it’s finished, done, over—when they
kiss, sigh, or wander off into a glade
or thicket. Pleasure ends,
the dazzle goes,
and melancholy settles like coal dust
and cigarettes
are lit. We put on clothes.
We feel the after-sadness to our lust.
It’s universal, whether in a burrow
or cave or nest or a familial bed.
Badger, fox, bear, human, wolf—all know
the sadness when the passion has
gone dead.
We can recover quickly. Soon we smile
and chat. Happy,
sated, we find our poise
and know we’ll be back at it in a while—
a
few days or a week, and then new joys.
But sadness always comes.
Though it is brief,
it fills us. The orgasmic frenzy done,
the spasms
past, it creeps in like a thief
and takes us back to the quotidian.
© David W. Landrum
