The poet’s curse*

It must be an unwritten love

or a love without words

something between verse and verse 

a teasing ethereality 

an absence or a longed-for 

too precious for the vulgarity of form

or description;

yes, poets who write about love

may not have it

but are nevertheless loved —

for theirs is the language of belonging

not ownership,

in the feudalism of romance

they care not for deed

but tenuriality 

— even in passing —

is land enough for love.

This they know.  

*”It is a poet's curse to be able to write about love but not have it…”