Poem Addressed to the Great Lovers

Sometimes I realize
I am only watching love

the way a cat
will "watch" television

Sometimes that makes me sad
sometimes I laugh

I could say I was just born
with love autism

Get a bumper sticker
to defend myself

from the slings and arrows
of more respectable lovers

But why bother

Great loves are like great movies

And all the great movies
funnily, eventually

end up on t.v.

And at that time
they'll seem somehow cheapened

and no longer possess
the youth of their silver screen

They'll leak commercials
the way someone leaks in a hospital bed

They will tell their great love
to a bored cat or nurse or telephone

Oh, I'm not bitter
I'm just sucking on your death

like a Sweet Tart

is all