Tell The Babysitter We'll Be Home Late Because a Jagged Edge Song Just Came On The Radio

a poem appreciating date nights with my wife

Epictetus said, "All philosophy lies
in two words- sustain and abstain."

I noted this as I wrote to you, love letters
about love, about romantic things
like "love conquers all", our own flimsy
philosophy. It would be easy, truthfully,
to compose a note with flowery words.
I could plagiarize Shakespeare or Neruda
or an old R&B song.

"Meet me at the altar in your white dress.
We ain't getting no younger, girl, we
might as well do it....”  isn't from some
fairytale romance. You rolled your eyes
when it came on the radio. I did too.

But I understood all the same. We usually
don't have words. We just know what
we want. I've always wanted you. So when
I forgo a sonnet or elegant poem to just say
how much I crave diving into your skin like
an ocean I'm only saying that I don't mind
a man's inability to breathe underwater.

You'd smirk. I always hoped my words would
convince you of things my insecurities
never could. We are nothing if not hopeless,
if not mired in a world where everything
passes us by, and here we sit, listening to
an old 90s R&B song, turning it up loud,
and when it ends, beg it to play again
and again and again.