Love Poem: Rough
Anais Vionet Avatar
Written by: Anais Vionet

Rough

Love is a bit of comedy, so be rough with love.

He arranges her one way and then another, 
in itchy dissatisfaction. She surrenders to the role 
like a silent bystander, a plaything in the hands 
of impatience - what does he want? 

“Like this,” he says in a schoolteacher’s voice.

The imbalance of power, the almost impersonal 
manipulations, the momentum toward surrender, 
and then the shocking, primal desire - to meld -
like a gunshot in a canyon long thought empty.