Love Business
how many songs have been written by people
who claim they’d die for someone they love
let’s get this straight
you would take a bullet in the gut
for the girl you met two months ago
who even now is wondering how
she could last this long
or you would switch places
with the guy you love
before he’s ripped to shreds in a head-on collision
on his way to your best friend’s apartment at midnight
you’ll stand in the way of a speeding train
because your love is so deep, so powerful
and incomprehensible to mere mortals who
cannot possibly know love the way you do
living their silly nine to five lives
coming home on time every night
sitting with the family and asking how was your day
they are so regular and so predictable
their love is stale, way too old to matter
a “love” filled with facts and figures
tuition payments and agreements
business-stained, nothing like
the new love you have that you will die for
as described in the ways above
a love that will end up like most love
if it miraculously manages to last
two people living together, watching each other.
• • •
John Meyers’ poems, stories, and essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications. Over the past year his work has been featured in The Louisville Review, Lunch Ticket, and Fiction Southeast, among others. He has work forthcoming in Misfit Magazine, Hoot Review, and The Jellyfish Review.