My lover has a red, red nose that drips,
and drips right copiously. The sneezes come
with brutal force much as a gale in fun
will wrench a flapping garden gate or flip
high in the air some jetsam at the tip.
He coughs all night. His throat is numb
and raw. The hacking cough is never done
I cannot sleep. Sighs tremble his chapped lips.

How could I love a man with such a nose
as this, who coughs and sneezes all the night
or care for one who cannot let me sleep?
Yet in the early hours I fetch a bite
of food, a cup of tea, a hottie for his toes
just as a week ago he did for me.

06/28/2004

Posted on 06/28/2004
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