(for my young neighbour who wants to impress the girls)

Is this a love poem
Or is this a poem all
About love?

Is this a love poem,
Affection tenderness,
Sometimes all mixed,
Up with friendship?

Is this a love poem
Like shall I compare
Thee to a garden snail
Or a garden gnome

(don’t knock the snail
As its juices are known
To help pimples and stuff)

Is this a love poem
Must they rhyme,
These words of mine

Are there rules written somewhere?
Was it your teacher, or Shakespeare or Shelley?
Drumming their traditions into your belly?

Is this a love poem
Like my love for you
Will never expire
(unless of course
You fart and catch fire)

Is this a love poem
Like the true romance
Of your eyes are like
The diamonds up your nose

Is this a love poem
Or is it just a trick
Like the lines we use
To make each other
Quite, quite sick