LOVE POEMS

DONE WITH YOU

The best part is
how I got over you
so fast, so quick.
I never think about you,
and your name does not occur
to me at all.

In a room of people
I do not imagine that I see you,
and if I do,
I don't have the impulse
to rush over and say something silly.

I can't recall your eyes
or your smile. It's as though
I never touched your face,
or even saw it.

And at night I never
suppose you there, and all
I have to do is open my eyes
and say hello, and you'll
twist toward me. This never happens.



FEMME FATALITY

in my arms
she is on guard,
firing into shadows:
she lives with the safety
off

her beauty is full of shock
and blood,
limping back from battles
on the far side of affection

in her wary eyes
I can see that
each day is a minefield
she must clear
with great loss of life

high in her voice I hear
ack-ack, red and black
like furious flowers
indignant above the injured land

at night she curls up
in her wounds
and sleeps the sleep
of the unburied dead

in the morning she gazes at
crumbled maps, planning
to strike first;
as every soldier knows,
love is hell

OH, CAROL

your little girl legs,
awkward and splayed.
I’m in love with innocence
you pissed away years ago.

diamonds on your stockings,
tears in my eyes.
I think we have a future
in the past somewhere,

okay, I won’t talk of love
if you won’t say,
“I’m so slutty.”

kissing you is a new kind of sad.
knowing you is bad luck
I’m glad to have had.

FATHER AND SON

My father wasn't good with words
or affection. Perhaps didn't have any.

He held himself aloof
and spoke only to injure.

I grew up bitter, a limited
man, and wished him dead.

All I ever wanted was what
other sons never went without.

He did die young, used up perhaps
by spite and his own hurts.

I thought I would be happy. Instead
I felt smaller, more alone than before.

I know now my life's ambition, to do
something grand, to stun him into love.

But I need his eyes to confirm me.
Him gone, how can I save myself?

ON THE OCCASION OF ELIZABETH'S DIVORCE

When God invented girls and boys,
He found they were his favorite toys.
He likes to watch them play for keeps.
Dear God, thanks heaps.

--

©Bruce Deitrick Price 2011