August 2024
Bio Note: I'm usually a prolific writer (with 33 books/chapbooks), but the past couple of months not so much. Lately, though, I'm coming back. My latest poetry book is Disturbing Shapes (New Plains Press, 2023). Forthcoming is Reasons and Remedies for Insomnia (dancing girl press). (One reason not mentioned in the book is back pain, a recent "acquisition". I'm still working on the corresponding remedy...) My main passion is math, and that's the inspiration for a lot of my writing.
"Caught a Moment of"
The joy of love
I caught a moment of.
The pain of love imbues
my whole life through.
—folk song from the 60s
There was a moment
a miracle moment
the miracle I’d been waiting months for.
He said he loved me.
So now I could say I loved him.
We held each other for a long time.
But the next time I saw him he wanted more from me.
Meaning more of me.
I was in love but no.
Not yet. Not already. Not so soon. (“I’m only seventeen.”)
Sometimes I said no and sometimes I didn’t.
But I never said “Can’t we be just-plain in love for a while?”
Can’t we just take walks on the beach?
Go to school dances?
Out for pizza?
Can’t you just take me to the movies?
Can’t we just sit still and hold hands?
Whisper sweet nothings?
Say certain words
and keep saying those words?
I think the answer would have been no.
©2024 Marion Deutsche Cohen
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL