Cupid Hangs

Love is invisible, and how hard it has been 

   to elude the unseen.

This while for others

    docked ships vomit flares.

With spare tires I commiserate,

   knowing what it is 

     to be the extra wheel. 

       I am a solo pirouette 

         in a disco full 

           of beau-spun-belles.

This my dating friends

  know well,

    but to bail on a dance 

      brimmed with lovebirds,

        to choose someplace else 

          than their shadow,

            is to find myself an egg 

               pelted from the nest. 

Idyllic they call their love,

    but I am a juror to their quarrels unending. 

Idyllic they call their love, 

    but salubrious would be their separation, 

       like a fetus passed term from its matriarch’s womb. 

Blissful they call their love,

   but to don rose-colored glasses in an eclipsed sun would be to go blind.

Blissful they call their love,

   but they exchange petal-less roses, plucked after bouts of “he loves me”, “she loves me not”. 

All this,

   but they hear I’ve chosen singlehood,

     and exclaim in horror, 

       as if I am Adam. 

As if it is on I that humanity rests. 

I have been a matchmaker

   for a person or two.

     Much like the stripling 

       bow and arrow brandisher indeed,

         but break my armor 

           fellow armed archers aren’t able. 

I clipped Cupid’s wings 

   and strung him up 

     on pulmonary branches kept in

       perfect propinquity 

         to my heart 

           for when he’s needed. 

             All the while far enough 

               to keep him from mischief.

For most of my friends,

   whose loving first sight was virtual,

     “taken” is the apt word.

         Online, but I hear “off-world”. 

            Abductee abductors. 

When my search does commence,

   on this terrestrial plane

     it will stay. 

At clubs and beaches and parties and cinemas 

   my lovebird friends are Amazonian flora –

     the dioxide of each’s exhales,

       nothing can keep them from.

But I, and I alone,

   am public enough

       for displays of affection 

         to vanish in pity.

But miles more wretched 

  than tender pity,

   is when staying close 

     to these friends 

       becomes

        “are we there yet” in perpetuity. 

To the more insecure lovers 

  of my woman friends, 

    our platonic present

      could never be a destination.

        A mere step, it must be.

          So, like topiary they cut ties 

            on her behalf.

              And make it the final destination. 

“He can’t be trusted”. 

But no more instantly do bonds fissure

   than with the stomped foot 

     of my lovebird pals’

       inevitable infant.  

         The mere changing of the diaper 

           you’d mistake for 

             the changing of the guards. 

Friends, but only ‘til birth do us part. 

For our union, 

   patiently my soulmate and I wait.

     Indeed, this missing person case 

       has not gone cold.

         Romance is attractive and

           so am I, I think. 

But it’s an open secret:

   Merged matrimonial sands 

     come from overflowing hourglasses, 

       so only when like raptured cumuli 

          my schedule clears 

            for me to make my own earthly abduction,

              will I let the pulmonary branch snap.

And make no mistake;

   This broken bough

     will yield no fallen babe. 

So while some chop off my name,

   reattached to my love of their dreams,

       in the name of future glory,

         I will bear singlehood 

           as long as need be. 

*CONTRACT BINDING*

Let all eyes that meet this page, even if only mine, hold a more aged me to his words:

When you finally do give up your hiding spot, 

you will love with such consistency

that time will be kept no longer by the Sun

but by your heartbeats. 

And with fidelity so unwavering 

that marriage alters nothing but white paper. 

You will break all generational curses 

that befell your lineage,

and no more will your ancestors

roll in Indian graves. 

*CONTRACT BINDING*