Spring Love

a poem by Yogesh Shamro Shinde

The black smoke rises from the pan,
you smile and whisper that I will make a good wife.
Scrambled eggs with thousand island dressing
and oven-baken tortillas from the grocery.
You wince and eat the food all the same.
I don’t mind you not liking breakfast
but that’s all I have. Please leave soon-
your fiancee may wonder at
the sudden sweetness of your smile.

Your belly’s a beer barrel’s paradise- warmth in the cold night.
Your skin shines like moonlight and breath- the beat of my heart.
I notice a little mole under your armpit and
you try to peer with all your might. I laugh.
You shimmer among a million scattered dreams
and the haze arrives as you hold me in your arms.

I know there will never be another man like you.
And you, with a serious look, tell me I am your only Spring-
beauty with eyes of a doe and smiles of butterflies.
I worry about her but you just hold me in your arms.
For now, hush,
let the Spring be savored and our woes be gone-
two souls in a field of tulips and the smell of cut grass.