Poem: ‘Never Give Your Love a Knife, Because’

it will cut your love in two I was told by someone

who’d know, someone who did give a pocket-

knife to their love. The best present I ever got—

a gift certificate to fly a falcon and I never redeemed it,

just let it hover in my mental map. An idea is all I need

and my god, my love wins at being my love, hands tied,

hands down, and really took the prize with this falconry.

He knows I’d throw a diamond like a penny just to

make a wish, some fleeting shimmer in my brain,

a silhouette of a dream, and how a gift can be a weight,

a tether. A valid gift is: a bike horn, a pineapple, a pine-

cone, a box of Jujubes, and I tell you I’ve been lucky

not to be wooed with flowers. God knows no one

wants flowers in a world like this, a world with feathers.