Reading Someone Else's Love Poems

is, after all, all we’ve ever done

for centuries—except write them—but what

a strange thing it is, after all, rose-cheeks and sun-

hair and lips, and underarms, and that little gut

I love to nuzzle on, soft under-belly—oops—

that wasn’t what I meant to talk about;

ever since handkerchiefs fell, and hoop-

skirts around ankles swirled

and smiled, lovers have dreamed their loves upon

the pages, courted and schemed and twirled

and styled, hoping that once they’d unfurled their down-

deep longing, they would have their prize—

not the songs of love, but love beneath disguise.

This poem appeared in The Laws of Falling Bodies by Kate Light, published by Story Line Press, 1997.

10.09.2026

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