A student says in class:

there are two meanings to the word husband
the verb: to carefully use or manage

That night a student says to me in a dream:

I don't mind the dirt and I like the twists
but, I swear, this winding dirt road better
lead somewhere eventually

and we watch the camera pan out
and the road keeps going
through valleys and trees and fields
and there are mountains further off

we know
every road leads
somewhere eventually.

But sometimes I forget that
and it seems like all the streetlights
have turned to trees
and I am lost and there is snow in my beard
or in his and I mistake myself in dreams for a
man I used to know
and I am trying on men I don't know
and wearing their bruises
and it seems to make sense since I am 
32 and that is an age to begin to think about what
might be around the bend
and besides my ovaries hurt

but

i am further from home with men
who believe that I am lying
when I say I would rather be a very ancient
wall on which people write their secrets
than a mother or a thing that is easily
managed or used

what home but the road is there for a woman
who will not be had?