How To Not Fall in Love or Write A Poem

It is not hard to avoid love

I can do it with my eyes closed

It’s the same skill required

In not writing a poem

After a little practice

You too will become good at both

I have not written a lot of poetry

Just as I have not loved a lot of people

And those are not just clever phrases

I really have not done these things

In the Summer of 2007

I lay on the bed beside an opened window

In the Hotel de Nesle

In the heart of Paris

After my daughter and I had gelato

In the hotel courtyard…

I was half awake

But my most vivid memory

From Paris was the sound of

Delivery trucks in the alley

Outside that window

To my ears the trucks were French

And words I could not understand

Wafted up from the street

No doubt, under this influence

I would have fallen

In love with the next flower

Or work of art, I saw

To say nothing of an unsuspecting person

But after I awakened, my daughter and I

Talked a while and then we went out

And a motorcycle ran over her shoe

On the sidewalk and she said

I did not show proper concern

For her foot and so we argued

Instead of me seeing art or life

And falling in love

We spent that evening walking

The streets of Paris

And I never wrote a poem either

So, in one trip to Paris

I am now an authority

On how to not fall in love

And to not write a poem

All it takes is a mild diversion

Allied with a sense of urgency

That’s it,

If you live distracted and in a frenzy

You will never fall in love

And you will never write a poem

But you may make a lot of money

Or win fame and fortune

Which would serve you right