The woman said yes she would go to Australia with him br Unless he heard wrong and she said Argentina br Where they could learn the tango and pursue the widows br Of Nazi war criminals unrepentant to the end. br But no, she said Australia. She'd been born in New Zealand. br The difference between the two places was the difference br Between a hamburger and a chocolate malted, she said. br In the candy store across from the elementary school, br They planned their tryst. She said Australia, which meant br She was willing to go to bed with him, and this br Was before her husband's coronary br At a time when a woman didn't take off her underpants br If she didn't like you. She said Australia, br And he saw last summer's seashell collection br In a plastic bag on a shelf in the mud room br With last summer's sand. The cycle of sexual captivity br Beginning in romance and ending in adultery br Was now in the late middle phases, the way America br Had gone from barbarism to amnesia without br A period of high decadence, which meant something, br But what? A raft on the rapids? The violinist br At the gate? Oh, absolute is the law of biology.