Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm still reeling from the shock of selling my two Tucson houses at below-market prices. I work hard at keeping things together, and have no one to blame but myself for choices made at different points in my life.

That said, this poem captured my sense of humor, and I wanted to share it with you for Valentine's Day—which was, by the way, the most enjoyable Valentine's Day I have experienced in many years.

The poem is printed in {Risking Everything}: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation, edited by Roger Housden. I learned of this compilation from my sewing and creativity mentors, Diane Ericson and Marcy Tilton.

Enjoy!

I Take Master Card
(Charge Your Love to Me)
Nikki Giovanni

I've heard all the stories
'bout how you don't deserve me
'cause I'm so strong and beautiful and wonderful and you could
never live up to what you know I should have but I just want to let you know:

I take Master Card

You can love me as much as your heart can stand
then put the rest on
account and pay the interest
each month until we get this settled

You see we modern women do comprehend
that we deserve a whole lot more
than what is normally being offered but we are trying
to get aligned with the modern world

So baby you can love me all
you like 'cause you're pre-approved
and you don't have to sign on
the bottom line

Charge it up
'til we just can't take no more
it's the modern way

I take Master Card
to see your Visa
and I deal with a Discovery but I don't want any American
Express 'cause like the Pointer Sisters say: I need a slow hand.

—from Nikki Giovanni's Love Poems. Copyright 1968, 1997 by Nikki Giovanni

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Oh, since I'm so enjoying having romance in my life again, let me give you one more:

The Greatest Love
Anna Swir

She is sixty. She lives
the greatest love of her life.

She walks arm-in-arm with her dear one,
her hair streams in the wind.
Her dear one says:
"You have hair like pearls."

Her children say:
"Old fool."

—Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan
from Talking to My Body. Copyright 1996 by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan.