A Poem of True Love for Valentine's Day

If this isn't true love, then there is no such thing!  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Love Poem

by John Frederick Nims

My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,

At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,

Whose hands are bulls in china, burs in linen,

And have no cunning with any soft thing

Except all ill-at-ease people:

The refugee uncertain at the door

You make at home; deftly you steady

The drunk clambering on his undulating floor.

Unpredictable dear, the taxi driver's terror,

Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime

Yet leaping before red apoplectic streetcars - 

A misfit in any space.  And never on time.

A wrench in the clocks and the solar system.  Only

with words and people and love do you move at ease.

In traffic of wit, gently maneuver

And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.

Forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel,

Your lipstick grinning on our coat.

So gaily in love's unbreakable heaven,

Our souls, on the glory of spilt bourbon float.

Be with me darling, early and late.  Smash glasses - 

I will study wry music for your sake.

For should your hands drop white and empty

All the toys in the world would break.