Poetry Sunday: Love Explained by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Love can be a mystery, a conundrum. It can addle the brain and make you stupid at times. It can even cause you to flip "the grammar of the spoken word" and make nonsensical comments. Jennifer Michael Hecht explains.
Love Explained
Guy calls the doctor, says the wife’s
contractions are five minutes apart.
Doctor says, Is this her first child?
guy says, No, it’s her husband.
I promise to try to remember who
I am. Wife gets up on one elbow,
says, I wanted to get married.
It seemed a fulfillment of some
several things, a thing to be done.
Even the diamond ring was some
thing like a quest, a thing they
set you out to get and how insane
the quest is; how you have to turn
it every way before you can even
think to seek it; this metaphysical
refraining is in fact the quest. Who’d
have guessed? She sighs, I like
the predictability of two, I like
my pleasures fully expected,
when the expectation of them
grows patterned in its steady
surprise. I’ve got my sweet
and tumble pat. Here on earth,
I like to count upon a thing
like that. Thus explained
the woman in contractions
to her lover holding on
the telephone for the doctor
to recover from this strange
conversational turn. You say
you’re whom? It is a pleasure
to meet you. She rolls her
eyes, but he’d once asked her
Am I your first lover? and she’d
said, Could be. Your face looks
familiar. It’s the same type of
generative error. The grammar
of the spoken word will flip, let alone
the written, until something new is
in us, and in our conversation.
I must pay more attention to these spoken gymnastics and see if I can come up with some original witticisms. But don't hold your breath waiting!
ReplyDeleteThis one made me laugh out loud when I read it which was reason enough to feature it.
DeleteThanks for posting. I had never read this before. It is good verse .
ReplyDeleteLove can indeed cause a lot if mental chaos.
It certainly caused chaos in the young father in the first stanza!
DeleteI loved this take on an old joke. This was a fun poem.
ReplyDeleteWe can all use a bit of humor in our lives, can't we?
DeleteThe rhyming scheme itself was entertaining. The pandemic has brought to light some contractions at our house but we seem to have weathered them well.
ReplyDeleteIt has changed all of our lives, in some ways even for the better, and perhaps made us understand that "this metaphysical refraining is in fact the quest," our quest.
DeleteNever read this one before but I enjoyed it!
ReplyDelete'Tis the season for love so it seemed like a good time to explain it!
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