Misunderstandings

A poem for Valentine's Day

Misunderstandings 

1.

Loving is more
an act of the body

than the mind.
The father, for

instance, who
wakes to feed

his daughter
even after 

she has gone; 
the mother who

wakes because
the bed is cooler.

2.

My wife’s hands,
worn smooth

by flowers,
rest against

my chest.
Her breasts

rise slowly as
she breathes in

the invisible
sea of evening.

This morning,
hearing the door

open and close,
she whispered

good-bye with me 
still in the room.

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TFP IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE IOWA WRITERS COLLABORATIVE