Early Valentines
I see that several of the current Met posts are about loving dogs, cats, and a cantering horse, a handful Darwin liked, plus insight into cattle’s prescient and punny epiphany about their barbecuing. And there are always a few about those of our own species: beloved men and women. Add your Valentines, pro-and-or-con, if you like (the exercise has several predecessors).
Our Lie Ins I love our lies about Who loves the other more Who best instructs our child Who sticks to what we swore Who was the first beguiled Whose jokes are corniest Who listens to the other Which of us chose best Why we’ll stay together When we lie together |
From the anthology Love Affairs at the Villa Nelle:
The Overview My greatest love, a Persian cat, arrived when I was twenty-two. I wouldn't have expected that I'd fall in love in seconds flat with eyes of enigmatic blue. My greatest love, a Persian cat, refuted the old caveat: Cat-love is not, like dog-love, true. I wouldn't have expected that she'd choose my lap for habitat, but year by year her kindness grew. My greatest love, a Persian cat, outlasted many a fine male rat including, my false darling, you. (I wouldn't have expected that). And so I find, while working at My Life and Loves: An Overview, my greatest love: a Persian cat. I wouldn't have expected that. |
Gail,
And who would have expected such a delightful love-charged Villanelle! |
A Sirius Valentine
She’s Nature’s art in full disgrace beginning with her longing face. Below her bangs the eyebrows mate, her eyes are runny, teeth like slate. Her ears, unlike smooth tiny seashells, swing a lot like misshaped cowbells. Her twitching nose is ski-slope long and never has inspired a song. With lips severely under-drawn and tongue that yaps from dusk to dawn, with sour breath to make one reel, this is one gal no one would steal. But I’m a pooch who loves her smile when we’re romancing doggy style. From Dogs R Us |
Love Struck
Cupid’s strikes are random treasure, lasting gifts of painful pleasure. From Asses of Parnassus |
Couples
One complains One explains |
In Her Hip Pocket
In her hip pocket, like a pupal worm, I’m making every effort to sustain my love for her—she thinks I should remain back here, a dormant mute, to reaffirm devotion. In this cocoon, I feel alarm about my fate but try not to complain. Bruised at times by buttocks, and in pain, I still can’t voice my dream—to finally charm my way from heavy hips up to her face, where I, unfolding like a chrysalis, my mandibles aquiver for a kiss, might light on rosy lips and taste her grace. I fear this larval state will never pass: she holds me hostage here to kiss her ass. From Sonnet Stanzas |
For Trudy, in New York on Business
You came and went in dead flat Hopper light: encounter at the Whitney; swift affair that we, both married, knew would lead nowhere – but all each wanted was the one-night stand of sorts; late afternoon-lit flight to your hotel; a lamp, a desk, a chair, a bed on which to stumble, fall and share the satisfaction of an appetite for unexpected sex. No mysteries, no chiaroscuro worked to mask the sight of loose and mottled flesh. And did we care? Was there more there than Edward Hopper sees? You filled the window, stark, unshaded, bright; I watched your shadow paint the soot-choked air. Looking Back The way the marriage worked was she would paint from midnight until six am, and he would rise as she slid into bed, and she would sleep past noon, and wake, and reacquaint herself with friends, and smile without complaint when he did not come home some nights; and he was no more bothered by their life than she, for neither cared that either was no saint. Or so the story went – the one he told to women he encountered now and then, and polished with each use, then used again - devised to snare the curious or bold. It worked so well that finally he forgot which parts of it were true and which were not. These two are from Life in the Second Circle. |
I really like these, Michael, how they focus light on truths of the imperfect human heart.
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To this world's lovers:
Seasonal Cycles Lovers Spring is spanking new Summer the hot flirt Autumn strips for you Winter’s cool dessert Trysts Spring beneath the lilacs Summer in the clover Autumn on the haystacks Winter in the parlor Relationships Springtime teases Summer pleases. Fall matures Winter endures. Songs Spring eulogies Summer lyrics Fall elegies Winter epics First at Autumn Sky Poetry Daily |
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