these arrived for us today

LOVERS
from "Sympathetic Magic"
Stephen Dunn

To keep the one you want
dig up a footprint of hers
and put it in a flowerpot.
Then plant a marigold, the flower
that doesn't fade.
And love her.
If she's distant now
it's for a reason beyond control.
So don't tamper with the impressions
left by her body when
for the last time
she leaves your bed.
Just smooth them out and forget her.
Who is not vulnerable
to a stronger magic (the
broken glass, the bullets
in a yawn),
the terrible power of the one
less in love.

Love doesn't sit there like a stone. It has to be made like a bread; remade all the time, made new. - Ursula Leguin

The truth about childhood is stored up in our body and lives in the depth of our soul. Our intellect can be deceived, our feelings can be numbed and manipulated, our perception shamed and confused, our bodies tricked with medication. but our soul never forgets. And because we are one, one whole soul in one body, someday our body will present it's bill. -- Alice Miller