Not a Sonnet

This is not a sonnet babe, you said.
There’s too much speech; it makes it hard to see
the rhymes. -There’s too much football in your head,
I answered. Look! It rhymes abab.

Aren’t all sonnets meant to be about
love? you said. This isn’t, so it’s not
a sonnet. -You’re in it, I pointed out,
and we’re in love. You said, Oh, I forgot.

It is a sonnet. Watch how it just turned
tragic in the sestet. The next line
suggests, in writing it, I should have learned
our love is doomed – you’re far too philistine.

Well, you’re a geek, you said, but I would miss you.
And that is where I stopped the verse to kiss you.

Previously appeared in Swimming

Index Of Published Poems