How Trite Are Words Poem by Sara Militello

How Trite Are Words

How trite are words
Lovers ‘n' poets invoke
at the beginning and end
Of Venus' perennial joke:

Often to crash and burn
before a fortnight has begun
Though promises of love are where
lovers kiss and eternal fealty swear.

Yet, to stay words of love sought or not-
Singed by passion's flame,
Promise would be as naught
With nothing near love to claim.

Great minds know not
When time began nor when it will end;
What love is, when it begins
or why it doesn't when it should.

Yet never abandon effort
to find deeper meanings
charged by passion's permissive leanings
-whether sought or not.

October 7,1989