Happy Valentine, Doreen

by Lightning Rod

Posted to Utterances on 2003-02-14 16:59:00

Parent message is 382638
i’m no stranger to failure. how many?
logic and sensibility for a start.
i know my words are not enough
to take the place of flowers and greeting cards
and my prose comes out in lines
like mock-poetry distilled
but i love you still in all my failures

i’m ashamed for you to put silver on my wrist
because i cannot put gold on yours.
you don’t want to hear about my failures.
fate is a fond enemy.
if you cloud my dismay with your regret
and cry for what could have been,
we waste the days, the minute’s caress,
tattoo of moments on my breast.

in the hearth, the logs are burning down
and we make a sad and mournful sound,
timbers creaking with heat and expansion,
hissing gas and flames; the ambition is ash.

if i fail in the details, the cockleshells and puppy dog tails,
the county jails and the long black veils,
love you still.
love you still.

LR

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