I almost went to bed
without remembering
the four white violets
I put in the button-hole
of your green sweater
and how I kissed you then
and you kissed me
shy as though I’d
never been your lover.
Leonard Cohen

"…recite the list
of what you’ve learned to do without.
It is stronger than prayer."
Stephen Dunn, Travelin

Triolet on a Line Apocryphally Attributed to Martin Luther

Why should the Devil get all the good tunes,

The booze and the neon and Saturday night,

The swaying in darkness, the lovers like spoons?

Why should the Devil get all the good tunes?

Does he hum them to while away sad afternoons

And the long, lonesome Sundays? Or sing them for spite?

Why should the Devil get all the good tunes,

The booze and the neon and Saturday night?

-A.E. Stallings

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