Not Another Love Poem

The greeks in chorus
as only greeks can murmur,
view love as human folly
to be cured with geometry and humor

with forensic specificity
and pathagorian wit
the malady dissected with terms
a surgeons fancy fits

Eros, agape, filios, storage,
epithumia and phile
clean as pie charts,
filed and stored
by generations ignored
in error, pain and shame

we talk of love
and worship love
profit from love
and flee from love

Poets extol its danger
priests vow its virtue
lovers pine and die
in its presence or absence

like a lawn unmowed,
it thrives
ignored like a ringing phone
it grows

unencumbered by god-bothering zealots
love becomes vast and encompassing

surrounding us with quiet glee
it wiggles inside us
with the terrifying patience
of an ancient, thirsty deity

for the unwary
the lame of gait
crooked of tooth
less than clean

And transforms us into saints.