The Serial Lover.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

you first utter the world love
and you take hold of its bounty
like a flower still on its stalk
by the morning sun, until you pluck
it and then you carry it as your own
and along the way the beginning of
cruelty as like a child you take it
away petal by petal until what you
have in your hand is a headless stalk,
and then you utter love again and
then another and she comes across you
thinking about love, about you,
at first love and then the beginning
of violence, you grip her and she
is choked into the last word: love

love still, love forevermore until
she is gone and you continue this
journey of guilt, one flower to
another, headless stalk, and here
you are: a stranger talking to another
woman in this village.