True Love

Your sickness made me
a little sick, it's
true--I still
feel it
    Mayakovsky got down
           on his knees
    and declared
                       his love
  to his last
                  mistress
             a few hours after he'd met her
Remember me
at the hotel
                in Paris,
          on my knees
            in the lift?
We're all the same
men of too much passion
and a little talent--
     some a little more
                     than others
      We fool ourselves
          into thinking
                      we're strong
              then complain
            the rest of our lives
                crippled by
                  the consequences.

  --Barry Gifford