"Domestic"

27 July 2018: Stumbled across this poem, "Domestic," by Carl Phillips, the other day and have been thinking about its depiction of domestic happiness quite a lot. Its humor (toilet humor!) comes from the familiar--this couple knows each other--which feels real. I also love the little flashes of insecurity that run through the speaker's mind. That seems real to me, too. Anyway, here are the closing lines:

"I thought this is another of   
those things I’m always forgetting   
to tell you, or don’t choose to   
tell you, or I tell you but only

in the same way, each morning, I
keep myself from saying too loud I
love you until the moment you flush
the toilet, then I say it, when the
rumble of water running down through
the house could mean anything: flood,

your feet descending the stairs any
moment; any moment the whole world,
all I want of the world, coming down."