The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3

It's easy to love

through a cold spring
when the poles
of the willows
turn green
pollen falls like
a yellow curtain
and the scent of
Paper Whites
clots
the air

but to love for a lifetime
takes talent

you have to mix yourself
with the strange
beauty of someone
else
wake each morning
for 72,000
mornings in
a row so
breathed and
bound and
tangled
that you can hardly
sort out
your arms
and
legs


you have to
find forgiveness
in everything
even ink stains
and broken
cups


you have to be willing to move through
life
together
the way the long
grasses move
in a field
when you careen
blindly toward
the other
side


there's never going to be anything
straight or predictable
about your path
except the
flattening
and the springing
back


you just go on walking for years
hand in hand
waist deep in the weeds
bent slightly forward
like two question
marks
and all the while it


burns
my dear
it burns beautifully above
you
and goes on
burning
like a relentless
sun

"The Kama Sutra of Kindness: Position Number 3" by Mary Mackey, from Breaking the Fever. ©
Here is someone's take on this poem.
 
 

 
In other news, I sent this picture to The Esteemed Elder Sister to let her know that her secret superhero identity was out. She also looked through the t-shirts available from Natalie Dee, Married to the Sea and Toothpaste for Dinner. She called me laughing so hard she was wheezing, so I am considering the entire venture a success.