The Riddle Master  
asked  
a woman struggling  
in a lost  
loveless marriage. 
 
This paradoxical  
necessary  
philosophical  
inquiring riddle!  
 
 
“If the longed for lover 
      is of good honourable heart;  
      gave everything  
      while he had nothing;  
      gave all he had ever gotten  
      proving repeatedly;  
      how precious is a noble heart... 
 
      why then did the man  
      who had everything;  
      give nothing at all? ” 
 
 
“For that man who took  
      your everything;  
      you poured out lovingly;  
      love from the depths;  
      defining your heart.” 
 
“Then you twisted your soul  
      he called you a bore,  
      humiliated you  
      while steadily stealing,  
      your innocence;  
      twisting the knife  
      cruelly more and more.”  
 
 
“Why then  
      are you still with  
      the man  
      who took everything? ” 
 
“The man  
      who came with  
      the career and luxury car.” 
 
 
The answer is ever locked  
within many years of marriage,  
a couple of children  
a house full of memories,  
a long history of knowing  
each other intimately;  
for such a long long time. 
 
 
For the young, single, and carefree fool,  
the appeal of attentive flashy fraud courting;  
proves to be a fatal irresistible force;  
that must burn out youth’s passion painfully. 
 
 
Now you console yourself with allure of the material  
shopping friends, your children, and an old old saying;  
‘better the devil you know, than the one you don’t’  
 don’t you know your children will leave, they grow?  
 
 
Copyright © Terence George Craddock 
Written in January 2000 on the 9.1.2000.
Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-riddle-master/