Hailey Leithauser

Women and Monday Rondelet
October 26, 2025 Leithauser Hailey

Women

 

Without them, one could end up straight
or at best, (fretfully), celibate.

 

Men can be handy, and funny, and rich, yet
even the wisest has hairs on his face.

 

Nobody wants to kiss hairs in that place.

 

 

 

 

Monday Rondelet

 

It doesn’t matter what you give up,
gambling, or gossip, or tobacco, or drink,
it doesn’t matter. What you give up,
whether crème de la crème, or dregs of the cup,
sex, or red meat, or whatever endeavor you think
you’ll tough out, it’s only a bluff, a ship pledged to sink,
so it doesn’t matter what, you give up.

Hailey Leithauser‘s latest book, How to Moth, will be published as a part of the Sewanee Poetry Series (LSU Press) in the Fall of 2026. Her work has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in 32 Poems, Agni, Ecotone, Literary Matters and Best American Poetry 2025.