greeting card at the hippie grocery

love, he said, is that four letter word
that bursts forth, occasionally
pleasing the company – but!
there is no right way to hear it.

you know you want to run. and
that is perfectly okay. even so:
you are known, well-loved,
and madly frustrating anyway.

love, she said, is simply that thing
that makes dirt and rain so very
beautiful and worthy (despite
the rep): and were it safer to explain

one or the other would hear this:
you are loved as you are and
as you always have been,
even back in the time before time.

and this: there is not a bit of need
to change. oh, love, that word!
now there's a pot-stirrer
for you! not even meant to bind.

poor little four letter word.

news from a small town 18, April 2011