“Is there depression in your family?”
she asked me after marrying my son
and giving birth to their first progeny.
I indicated no. “Most everyone
is willful, prone to anger. We’re complex
but rarely down, and seldom sad for long.”
“But what about – ?” she signified my ex,
and I was thunderstruck to get how wrong
I’d been, the way I read three dozen years
ago. I then resented how my spouse
complained of minor ailments, swallowed tears
of sentiment, and hung around the house.
I thought him wussy, and I never guessed
the obvious; the man was sore depressed.