Saturday, February 14, 2009

February 14th (b)





Valentine
by Carol Ann Duffy


Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.



Image courtesy of Anyonebutjulian

6 comments:

  1. I love this poem.

    Hope this day is bringing you and your boy no less love and joy than any other day you have together.

    xx

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  2. Happy vally day to you and yours.
    Adore this poem,'a moon wrapped in brown paper' beautiful images..

    Some days just call for a poem,don't they? I had posted Wendy Cope's valentine poem! Great minds and all that..
    And the Liz Lochead is new one for me, but I adore her poems.

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  3. I used to LOVE this poem in school - so much so that the piss was thoroughly taken out of me. I then met Ms Duffy and she was a bit mean so couldn't look at the poem in the same light!

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  4. My favourite poem. So much so that whenever I try to write poetry I always feel like it's slowly turning into this.

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play nice.