eat the same chickens

240-poem-eatsamechickens-prep.jpg

Keith and I became sweethearts when we were just seventeen. We made little money and agreed on our very first Valentine’s day that we would set a $2.00 limit on gifts. We have honored that limit for over 50 years now. It has yielded imaginative gifts: drawings, paintings, and poems. Then there have been assorted candy bars, flower seeds, cream puffs, and a few gifts too raucous to mention.

$2.00 is a lot to work with when you’re in love.

This year, it was on the table with a Valentine card when I woke up. Keith grew a little flower for me in the basement and picked it this morning. I wrote him a poem called “Eat the Same Chickens” (which might be the best line of poetry I’ve ever written). The photo above my poem is the little lavender flower Keith gave me.

POEMMary MayLove Poems