Irene McKinney is West Virginia's poet laureate and I ran into a book of her poems at the Jane Addams' Bookstore in downtown Urbana, IL. I always seem to find the best random poetry books there. From Six O'Clock Mine Report- II The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson here goes...
She Says Zero
I have never been seduced. I am always myself.
You cannot prevent me from choosing
to love you in my way. I choose to love
what shines out of you, and not
the doors you close against the light.
I will never love your breakfast cups, your cravats,
your uses in the world. You cannot seduce me.
I would meet you in that open space
at the center where the real words pulse,
where the meaning is.
I will hold out my hands to you
at the same moment yours are
extended, palms up.
But I will not be seduced.
No. Zero.
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