The Seventh Commandment is about adultery...

There is much to say about adultery, how it breaks fidelity, destroys faithfulness, is an act of betrayal. I have tried to make a poem of the commandment, finding I know a number of people who have been unfaithful--and glad to do it. Too bad. Sorry, as the poem says in the end.


The Seventh Commandment: Adultery...
by Peter Menkin

Betrayal, and infidelity.
Evils
that some call
sweet secret. The Seventh Commandment
says not--

but a sin and blemish.
You shall not commit
adultery. I know a man and a woman

who for twenty years
were adulterous.

I know a man and a woman
who in their 70s
have been adulterous.

I know a woman who has been adulterous
all her married lives,
through four husbands.

So much unhappiness
for everyone. Grevious
is what adultery
is to all who participate and know.

Diminishment of spirit, lies
of love, intimacy lost.
One feels a part of this
just knowing.

Sordid details of our lives.
Sorry.