Love Poem

“it’s as if there’s a menu & she is the menu & everything is allowed”

Prayer by Man Ray (1930)

Dear friends,

I remember when I first encountered Sex & Love & — a book of Bob’s I couldn’t find in the library, so Shannan (my wife), in our early days of courtship, bought it on Kindle and we read the whole thing to each other. We were very surprised and delighted how open and vulnerable and sexual the poems were, without hiding anything. It felt like someone was finally writing about sex in a way that didn’t flatten it into metaphor or shame or performance. The poems in this book are messy, beautiful, physical, tender, weird, and full of devotion. They carry the daily textures of real partnership—love that is lived in, not abstracted. And what makes them last isn’t just the desire, though there’s plenty of that—it’s love. Lots and lots of love and care. Hope you enjoy this one!

May love devour you (only in sexy, beautiful ways),

Karan

Love Poem

by Bob Hicok

For a time we licked toes & liked it
& neither of us asked the other to wash,
I realize now that we stopped
as abruptly as we began & never
feet, never ankles, never assholes,
a common theme among prostitutes: men
who want to beg to lick their unwashed
assholes clean, on or off a leash, never
that & I don’t miss her toes
unless they’re out of town & she
has joined them, then I miss her toes
as very much as I miss her & flesh, she
has more of it as she ages & I
have more of it as I age, more
to lick & not lick as we like,
it’s as if there’s a menu & she
is the menu & everything is allowed, minus
forever

This poem is from Sex & Love & (Copper Canyon Press 2016)