By: Jim Murdoch

He Said, She Said

(for Carrie)

I gave my wife a cute pendant
(of a bird because she likes birds)
and she said, “Mm. What’s this?”
and I said, “It’s new. They extract a bit of your love
and science it into jewellery. Clever, eh?”

And she said, “Hm. How much, percentage-wise?”
And I said, “It’s fine, it grows back.
Hearts are like livers and bladders.
Fingertips too, I think.”

“You could’ve just given me some of your love,”
she said and I said,
“Yeah, it’s just my feelings for you are kinda
practical, workaday, I mean, nothing fancy.”
And she said, “Oh, you silly, silly man.”

The Ones

In love there are no winners or losers, there are only those who are hurt more or those who are hurt less – Thai Proverb

It’s said you never forget your first love.
And I haven’t.
I’ve never forgotten my second either
or the third;
there weren’t that many to begin with.
Seriously though,
who has so many loves they struggle to
remember them?

Of course, all of mine were true loves.
Not quite sure
how that’s supposed to work. I guess
true’s only true
until it’s not and then you get a what?
a do-over?
Maybe we should call it something like
true-for-now love.

Love inevitably ends; it runs a course
and then ends.
Be it a dash, an obstacle course, or a
fun run, it ends
and for most of us “winning” means
simply not
falling flat on our face a foot before
the finish line.

Sadly, in that regard, my track record
is far from stellar.

Ménage à Trois

Sandwiches can be both delicious and quite satisfying if made correctly – Jennifer Lassalle
Edwards

It is not widely known but
Expectation and Disappointment
had a thing back in the day.

It was a… volatile relationship
until Nothing came along and
proved both flexible and adaptable:

Nothing pleased Disappointment and
met Expectation halfway. So, yeah.
Trouble was Nothing had needs too

and, so the story goes, one day upped
and ran off with Something and/or Other.
The details are a bit hazy.

Thy Name Is

Love is an off-the-peg excuse,
not exactly a
Get Out of Gaol Free card
but certainly a
way to mitigate all manner of
unconscionable,
unreasonable and unemotionable
carryings-on.

All in the name of love.
Whose sobriquet is Arse
wouldn’t you know.

###

Jim Murdoch is a Scottish writer living in Cumbernauld. He’s been writing for over fifty years and his list of rejections is voluminous but he keeps at it. He’s written most things over the years–novels, stories, songs, even plays–but he thinks of himself primarily as a poet and is currently producing poems at an unpresented pace. There are worse things to be in your sixties.