~

I have loved many women,

but was it love?

and what about sex?

~

Some were simple infatuations;

some were sexual attractions.

Some were loves,

and some were not.

~

And now I’ve come to realize, with age,

love is much different from sex.

~

Sex is sex,

a physical romp.

It’s supposed to satisfy urges;

which boils down to science,

and maybe to physics –

palpable, natural, hormonal.

~

But love!

You don’t need love to have sex,

and you don’t need sex to have love.

~

I’ve learned that one can live without sex,

though it might seem hard;

but it’s harder still to live without love –

Plato’s best student, said unnatural.

~

Love, it seems, appears to be natural;

or so, the pure scientist says.

It’s physiological,

and they wash their hands

and shovel it off

to the realms of Psychology.

”No tangible evidence.”

~

The metaphysicians made a run with it;

some have even scored points;

but no one’s won the final game:

”No cause and effect can be found.”

~

Not, at least, at the atomistic level.

~

So, roll over Democritus;

and here enters Plato;

and his most propitious student of all.

What the teacher had said,

the student would change

and tug it gently back into Nature.

But no one can still put their finger on it;

no one can assign a number.

~

Now I have loved New Mexico,

and loved Virginia as well;

simply because I’ve known them both,

so maybe love could be knowing.

~

I have known some empty streets

on a Sunday in New York City.

I have also known the Grand Canyon gorge,

and Waikiki Beach late at night.

I’ve travelled a lot

all around this whole world,

and it seems to be getting much smaller.

But it’s America I’ve known the best,

and America, I love the most.

and I know that this loving is not chemical;

but I daresay it is oh so natural.

~

So, to all the women I have ever known,

sex or sans sex, but loved –

Thank you!

~

For all of those with whom I’ve not known,

had sex or no sex at all,

I never loved you –

I’m sorry.

~

I guess I just never knew you.

.

.

.

Copyright © 2011 Marvin Loyd Welborn. All Rights Reserved.

[Revised 15 Nov 2011]