Love Poem: If You Want To Improve,
Mark Riedel Avatar
Written by: Mark Riedel

If You Want To Improve,

don't be afraid to be foolish and stupid    (Heroditus)

When I first met her
     I knew there was something
     she gave me

     a spontaneous drumroll
     ascending to creative spirit

     she gave me
     passion petals
            potential riddles
and     irrasistable dreams

a hallelujah in my heart

     could she hear it?

she gave me
     hopefull hump into the night
always delivered 
                with style
like jousting with a flying kite

wholding energy all the while,

she gave me
     supernatural second sightings
     continual cocktail lightenings
     whirling dizzying dance exclusions
     all leading to this conclusion:

I was half - glass empty
     bored
     drunk and crazy
when she appeared,
I was darkly deep
            down where there is only silence
I was alone personified
            until our alliance
Alone with just my dog
            and weekend child
So simple a life, so mild

I never would have guessed
     she was to be my wife

An exotic beauty with twinkle
                             and belly dance
of fine gratuity
     she soaked me        entranced

                                   like a sponge in the 
                                                          starving Sun
(I had truly thought She was the ONE!!)

she gave me
     wringing hands around
                           midnight,
bottleneck bands
      of anxious light,
everfalling hourglass sands
seemingly never hitting
                                    bottom,
burried under legless hands
and an empty drawer
                                   full of condoms,
she gave me
     superflous frustration
     rafting hills of insecure persperation

     nervous to even be 
     alone
     with my solitary self

     atop my pre determined destination

                                       on Susana's Shelf