Love Poem

you are everything / the world has to say

The Promenade by Marc Chagall (1917)

Love Poem

by Bob Hicok

I only enjoy chess without pawns—
when the two sides go at it like sex
at one thirty seven a.m.—no pretense
that real contact isn’t wanted—
similar to the oboe player below us
feeling obviously big things
about the planet and his soul—
about leaves being open mouths—
about all the rooms one has to cross
before someone on the other side
lifts a corsage that smells remotely
like yes—if a game of chess
can be over in six seconds,
we can find the time to stand
in front of the statue of Balzac
holding hands—resisting the temptation
to call him Ball Sack—before we realize
it’s really Andre Gide—that it’s really
unimportant who is dead in bronze
pretending to be alive—more important
which is the best street gyro
of all the street gyros—which pocket
has the napkins to wipe the tzatziki
from your face, more lovely
than any tumbling routine—
each of us not going anywhere
we don’t look over and find the other
simultaneously arriving
to the conclusion, “I’m so glad
you’re here”—if you were anything
not human—anything
without a pulse—you’d be a bicycle
and I’d be the wind
trying hard to stay on
and not so much succeeding
as never giving up—I’m not sure
why I turned you into a bicycle
but I did—words are amazing—
you are amazing—you are everything
the world has to say

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First Published in Poetry City, USA, Vol. 5