SONNET

A month ago I gayly laughed to hear Well-meaning friends in some dark bar who frowned, Insistent that a lover must be found

To ease my mind of loneliness and fear.

I clinked a coin and drank another beer.

My fate was not to ride love's merry-go-round; Immune to love, I merely camped and clowned: "Well-meaning friends, please do not interfere!"'

A match was struck, a cigarette was lit,

The soul behind two eyes met mine somehow

(For souls can touch, although they cannot cling);

My heart took wing, and like a bird in flight

In that cold bar I felt the fires of spring.

I am like all the rest: I am not laughing now.

D. D. Dumas

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