Monogamy

by Sue Miller

the anguished impossibility of their deeply felt bond made visible.

She’d let Graham go off to be declared dead, to be burned up, wearing nothing but an old T-shirt, his wedding ring still on his finger. Who would do such a thing?

Or she was hungry, and Jeanne would open her blouse and fetch out a newly enormous, leaky breast, which tiny, ugly Claire would attach herself to, making slurpy, grunting animal sounds, amazingly loud for someone her size.

Wow. Ha! Thoughts from a new father trying to understand the new dynamic of his family.

She’d thought she was memorable. How clear it was that she was not.

It wasn’t a quality you possessed, she

thought now. It was a quality ...

endowed yo...