How to Write a Sustainable Love Poem 2
by Miriam N. Kotzin
Will you praise Chloe, Megan, Jenny, Maud?
Which of their many virtues will you choose?
Will similes of summer days provide,
or twilight’s glow? or those as yet untried?
If Chloe, Megan, Jenny should refuse
then lovely Maud remains for you to laud.
Yes, Maud, whose eyes are bright and tongue is slow
to scold—Maud of rosy cheeks, who’ll cause no woe.
But, no, you yearn instead for those who turn
away from you. And so it always goes
in love’s eternal cha-cha, stylized chase
when lovers pivot to a lost embrace.
So write two sullen lines that bring a close
to lines you cast when you last learned to burn.
