Happy e’er after’s lacking in events
and since the day we put down jealousies
and found we’d loved each other all our lives
the three of us have lived here peacefully
on the Bohemian sea-coast, gathering clams.
We left our countries to our sons’ calm rule,
and serve our turn as simple rustics now,
far from the whirlwind happenings at court.
I should confess, we like it better so.
Too painful are the things that serve as plot
three people loving quietly do not.
Spring 2000.
