Love Is Not A Feeling [rev.] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

I believe men can only love women romantically
if they've never been wed to one; maybe it holds
true for women too who can only unconditionally
love a man if they have never been wed to one
either; but once husband and wife have to face

Family budgets and the DNA inheritance of their
off-spring unconditional love & romance ceases;
of a morning he's hostile at her arising, she has
to get ready for work and is tired, looking unlike
his ideal - and she hates him for hating the kids

He ascribes what's wrong in his life to her being
who she is - she struggles with guilt clouds until
she cedes, severs ties made in hell; marriages
which make it predicate on lack of romantic love,
i.e., he sees her for the ugly little thing she is

While she sees him for the accusatory & angry
person he is - romantic love only exists where
there's no bond: when people share a life, the
only thing left to comprehend is this: Love is
not a feeling, but a state of the mind