Thirteen Ways of Looking at Love

1
Love is the heart’s Jiffy Lube.

2
Love is the dawn coming up like
last night’s chili con carne.

3
Love is blind,
hearing impaired, and bi-polar.

4
The language of love has
32 different words for “laundry.”

5
Apostrophe to love:   ′

6
You see blossoms when the trees
are bare? Leave some urine with the nurse.

7
Love Canal? Nuff said.

8
“Evol eurt,” true love spelled backwards,
is Norwegian for “moose tractor.”

9
This love machine comes
with tinted windows and automatic
transmission.

10
When in L.A., hang ten
at the La Brea Love Pits.

11
The Book of Love was written
by Sergei Rachmaninov and Franz Kafka.
Not the Sergei Rachmaninov.

12
Love takes time
and turns it into lots more time.

13
Nonethless, my dear, it’ll do.

William Trowbridge’s latest poetry collection, Ship of Fool, came out in February from Red Hen Press. His others are The Complete Book of Kong, Flickers, O Paradise, and Enter Dark Stranger. His poems have appeared in over 30 anthologies and textbooks, as well as in The Writer’s Almanac, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Georgia Review, Poetry, Boulevard, Green Mountains Review and New Letters. He lives in the Kansas City area and teaches at the University of Nebraska.