Poem: "For Lust"

For Lust

But for lust we could be friends
—Ruth Pitter, “But for Lust”


I want to call you back but do not think I should.
I am in love now, you see, and love must exclude
its look-alikes, its foreign gods, its counter proof.
He is so good to me and when I am not good
he gently planes away what in my soul is rough.
Approve may rhyme with love, but so does disapprove.

But oh the nights of passion you and I had shared,
the baring of the places that we thought were bared,
re-slotting what was present into what was past,
no-holds-barred, no forbidden gestures, nothing spared.
I will not call you back although I feel I must.
Trust rhymes with lust, but, my desire, so does distrust.

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