stringbook

Anti-Love Poem

elsewards:

Sometimes you don’t want to love the person you love
you turn your face away from that face
whose eyes lips might make you give up anger
forget insult      steal sadness of not wanting
to love      turn away then turn away      at breakfast
in the evening don’t lift your eyes from the paper
to see that face in all its seriousness a
sweetness of concentration     he holds his book
in his hand      the hard-knuckled winter wood-
scarred fingers      turn away      that’s all you can
do old as you are to save yourself from love

—Grace Paley