On love
Write about your beliefs about love, following some of the questions raised above (Is love a capricious emotion, subject to the winds of fortune? Or are people capable of staying-not out of fear or comfort or inertia but out of a selfless concern for someone to whom they feel devoted?). Is it a powerful emotion? What is the nature of love? How long can it last? Does it inevitably fade? Begin an essay titled “on love” or write a poem about love. Or, if you prefer, write a scene that dramatizes your beliefs about the nature of love.
An emotion for the masses
the poor excel at it
A salve to take away the pain
of aching muscles and
worried minds.
Crisis, depression, loneliness
bring people together like
the opposite ends of a magnet.
Rich people don’t get it
and the poor know
it’s the one thing that makes them superior.
The one thing they have
that can’t be bought, and can’t be sold.
But in the end, even the poor
can’t hold on to it.
It can’t be sustained
through constant upheaval.
Love blooms in sorrow
but gets worn down
like a pair of overused shoes.
When the oil bill comes and can’t be paid
who wants to deal with that?
Time to move on
and find someone new.
Someone with different problems
to uncover and different
body parts to fall in love with.
