Poem inspired by "Le Sommeil" (The Sleepers)

(Inspired by Gustave Courbet’s painting Les Sommeil (The Sleepers), (1866) depicting two naked young women sleeping together on a bed. The same painting illustrates Lerdgoin's poem The Models.)
 
She and I went back a long way;
I met her ere my wedding day
(Marriage was ‘arranged’ anyway
And I could not live on my pay).
 
Too strong to own any man’s sway,
She’d nerves of steel (my feet were clay).
A love whose name I dared not say
Began to eat my heart away.
 
When husband died, she asked to stay,
I was lonely, I said ‘O.K.’
When she’d arrived, on the first day
We heart to hearted hours away.
 
We opened up we were both gay.
After downing lots of Tokay,
We spent first night in naked play.
Together on my bed we lay.
 
She said ‘Let’s pair with least delay,
No matter what would neighbours say.
Let’s take a cottage by a bay;
Your husband’s will for it will pay.”