“A Poem for Valentine’s Day” by Aseem Kaul

Aseem Kaul

A POEM FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

I swore I wouldn’t write
a poem today.

Instead, I decided,
I would do my taxes.

So here I am, receipts
scattered across the floor
like forgotten letters,
stacks of dates that refuse

to add up, and a heart
that keeps trying to
calculate just what the last
year has cost it; how much
it can get away with;
what, if anything, it is owed.

from Rattle #28, Winter 2007

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