Greco-Roman Circle

Love Weariness

(Horace, Carmina IV, i "Intermissa, Venus, diu...")

Love gods in every pantheon,
have done!  Spare me further amours!
I'm not the man I used to be
when Lou's love ruled me.  Have done, I plead!
I'm crowding sixty.  Bother the young.
They've the constitution for love,
the will to waltz all night with lust,
the strength to woo and win and lose.

I'm beyond both men and women.
Leave me to my television and crackers.
But why, when Matt Damon visits Oprah,
does my breath come faster, imagining
I watch from poolside as he plunges,
a golden arrow, into blue water?

Next Poem:  "For a Soldier who Died on Camera"
List of Poem Circles
Updated last on:  2001/05/24