MARRIED LOVE

 Maxima Kahn

The heart of the poem is this mystery

called sorrow, this confounding

called human relations—but it takes flight

among the small finches busy about the bird feeder,

retreating to the limbs of oak. This mystery

of connection, need and longing

and then the daily dodging

of who will change the cat box.

The heart of the poem rests

on a cotton mattress, curled around

the naked body of the beloved

in a peace so deep it’s a wonder

it comes daily, this ineffable bounty

so lavish it’s like pouring coffers of gold

onto the floor in great heaps, morning after

morning. The heart of the poem

is the heart of our lives.

We give it form by enumerating

the four diminutive eggs

cracked into the frying pan, all the possibility

in an egg and the undoing of that

in the cracking of them,

the shared breakfast on woven

turquoise placemats, rustling

of newspaper, affections

strong enough to be burrowed in and

just slightly taken for granted,

though we know better at our ages,

having weathered harder love,

than to ever take this sweet

deepening peace for granted,

each kiss could be the last, life

dwindles the way the water

in the birdbath dries up each day

or is splashed out

by robins who bathe wastefully,

scaring the smaller birds. There is no

I, no you, no him nor her,

and yet there is, sweet paradox

that allows us to press our bodies

together in the kitchen, his scruff

tickling her upper lip, her belly

conforming around his, and take

a deep breath of the scent

of the other. We wouldn’t have this pleasure

without bodies, without sorrow

and death, the birdbath water

all splashed out

on the paving stones below.

Maxima Kahn's first full-length book of poems, Fierce Aria, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020. Her poetry and essays have appeared in The Louisville Review, Euphony Journal, ENTROPY, Citron Review, Sweet, Wisconsin Review, and Spillway, among many others. A recipient of fellowships and scholarships to the Vermont Studio Center and the Community of Writers, she has twice been nominated for Best of the Net. Having taught creative writing at the University of California Davis extension, she now teaches and blogs at BrilliantPlayground.com. You can find out more at MaximaKahn.com.