love touches

but cannot be touched

nurtured by faith

and virtue

it always betrays

grooms itself

with barbiturates

health foods

fat     austerity     gluttony

lust     virginity

fucking     generosity

and greed

everything in it

contradicts

cuts and bleeds

dies detached

like out-of-season fruit

fallen from a tree

with hungers to feed

this whore-son-bitch squats

in the nucleus

of our need

i know     because

love’s ambiguity

is a cliché

fear    security    glue

i know because

i’m not attracted

to your heart

your soul     a hole

or any other part

i know     because

when i hold you

i hold you...

and yet     like art

we stand apart

and bringing out

the best     affirm

what is true

because i more

than love you