Domestic Situation

By Ernest Hilbert b. 1970 Ernest Hilbert

Maybe you’ve heard about this. Maybe not.

A man came home and chucked his girlfriend’s cat

In the wood chipper. This really happened.

Dinner wasn’t ready on time. A lot

Of other little things went wrong. He spat

On her father, who came out when he learned

About it. He also broke her pinky,

Stole her checks, and got her sister pregnant.

But she stood by him, stood strong, through it all,

Because she loved him. She loved him, you see.

She actually said that, and then she went

And married him. She felt some unique call.

Don’t try to understand what another

Person means by love. Don’t even bother.

Source: Sixty Sonnets (Red Hen Press, 2009)

Biography

Born in Philadelphia and raised in southern New Jersey, poet, critic, and editor Ernest Hilbert received a BA from Rutgers University and a PhD in English literature from St. Catherine’s College of Oxford University, where he studied with James Fenton and Jon Stallworthy.

In his debut collection, Sixty Sonnets (2009), Hilbert establishes a variation on the sonnet form, employing an intricate rhyme scheme and varied line . . .

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