Love and Sorrow

We love and then they leave.  They leave us here
Alone, abandoned like a husk that hogs
Won’t eat, or as a freckled, red-haired, clear-
Eyed girl ignores (or shudders at) the bogs
That are the eyes of that blind student who
Desired her since she sounded sweet.  We love
And then they go with someone else.  They hew
A hole with lips inside our hearts and then they shove
Our pasts away.  We teach the words “adore”
And “worship” in our beds.  We give the lie
To skepticism, putting love before
All else, yes, everything.  And then they die.
..An agony is long and love too brief.
….The highest price we pay for love is grief.