Poems

Poems by Jeanne Minahan

Music by Joseph Hallman

Proof

Today

as if to prove

life existed without you

you made me list

the things I crave:

the sea

a salted tongue of breezes

rhubarb tart

a bottle of stout

cold air

wind

the sea.

Three Words, Two Thousand Times

            1.

Two thousand murmured words

Two thousand kisses

Two thousand sorrows

            in my bed.

            2.

How many times have we parted?

Who can count such silences?

Or the reeds in the hushed river?

            3.

The moon glazed

            the East River.

I walk beside it

            west.

You called from your door

            just once.

Two thousand times

            I heard it.

The End of Love

The end of love

is to be loved,

but I could call it other things.

I Love You Like Ten Bears

Not eleven or nine or that more romantic

one.  I love you like ten bears

he said and I take his word for it.

Now, not to be hungry, but please,

I think, let me feel them, hot berry breath,

clicking claws, warm pelt, glistening eyes

ten soft hearts beating and all.

Lover’s Complaint

The morning will not keep faith

with us, not for sleep

or love or ransom—

we are betrayed by noon.

Like Love

Infection

begins with an itch

turns to rawness,

your throat is sore,

then it settles in the chest,

that’s where it weighs

most.