are always
trying their best
not to come across
as too dull
or too clever.
They often involve rhyming
the same words together,
over and over
and over
and over.
The truest ones
don't settle for
"patient" and "kind;"
they describe love
as "sucker"
and "enabler"
and are not scared to show it
waiting forever
in parking lots
scanning all the outbound
faces from the car
or sitting alone
in darkened kitchens, long after
specific candles have dwindled.
But most importantly,
the best love poems
don't reveal much;
like our lives, they're over
far too abruptly
for that—
besides, even if
they saw something,
they'd probably lie—
or talk around it
on the sly—or just
never bring it up.
