In honor of this calendar day marking an emotion we should celebrate every day, Happy Romantic Love Day. Here’s hoping it can be found and experienced after such prolonged COVID isolation.

This Is Likely One of those Occam’s Razor Occasions

When you ask me
 wouldn’t it be better to
 be in love
 than write about
 being in love?

as in
 have her palm cup my bare knee,
 just for balance during a park bench kiss

or
write about the way
a fingertip slips in
sweat drips as they
curl Qs at the small of her back

as in
 hearing her tender everythings
 murmured millimeters from auricle & tragus
 curving into the cochlea, drum beating,
 her breath as loud as hot summer breezes

or
scribbling the onomatopoeics,
stenographic nightmare, that transcription of
intimate insistent intransigences
a wheeze a gasp a whistle
a vibrato oh, staccato ah, fortissimo

as in
a might-as-well-be cyrano precision
capturing and remembering 
the orange blossom & honey in her hair
the tea tree oil tingling nostrils
enticing erotic essences

or
nose notes in a wine journal
that never logged a single swirled scent
but instead her creams of 
lavender & lemongrass,
hints of mint, a whiff of wet flesh, fresh
rain

as in
the palate discerning butterscotch
or the coconut toasted on inner thigh
the buttery nuttiness of the nape of the neck
the plump lychee sweetness of parted lips

or
the tasting notes in that
same journal, as if descriptions of
Burgundian whites:
stone fruit confusions--peach jam,
apricot nectar, golden plum juices dripping
down chin & forearm
teeth and tongue a-tingle.

as in
subway car crowd glimpse
eye cast across a theatre
street crossing scan
seeing her two seats down at the sushi bar
alabaster skin & abalone melting in my peripheral
omakase for the eyes

or
the description read
eyes brown and wide as cinnamon
hair as black as philosopher-king’s ink, spilled down the naked back
of her backless dress, skin as smooth as
hope

i ask you
how can any of it be real?

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !