My Darling, My Cliche

 

Don’t start what you can’t diminish.
A bird in the hand is worth nothing if it lies
stock still and won’t sing. You can lead
a horse to water but you can’t make it recite the rosary.
If I said you had a beautiful body would you.
This is our bed you have made for yourself.
Beware of old lovers bearing gifts. A rolling stone
gathers much loss. If you can’t say something nice
say something with gall (many a true word
was said in a vest at three a.m. on a Wednesday night).
Why not begin afresh, put the past beside us,
forgive and beget? What the heart
hasn’t seen the eye doesn’t grieve for.
Please. It’s not over till the. Oh.

from Sunday at the Skin Launderette (Seren, 2008), copyright © Kathryn Simmonds 2008, used by permission of the author

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