Back to Poetry

This one was passed on to me by Steven Peele. Who knew the man recites poetry on a regular basis? It's the surprises in life that keep us going.

WHAT YOUR BODY HOLDS AGAINST YOU

could be love in the right proportions. Don't confuse
form and content where a good sense of humor becomes

the kind of curves that makes a room loosen
around her. Look for a woman that listens to music

drifting over a lake, hovering like flies, or someone who will watch
the landscape emptied of azaleas under a setting sun

with you. By forty there is a sideshow of vanities:
the dragon breath you wake to, bones tossed

against your skin like saves, or the flesh that grows
where a waitress tucks her loose change. We measure

time with our lives, counting out the coins
year by year. We all become detectives of broken

hearts in off-season hotels where love and its accoutrements
wait by the roulette wheel for once chance at the big time.

--Laurie Blauner