Eros

Perhaps he serves as puppet master,
lifting the arms of the lonely into love’s
gestures. Or he’s a laughing trickster who
pretends to be a waiter. I have met him a few times
and always, he is unexpected— the director
of an epic film in which the leading man and I
have the starring roles, grins bemused,
hair wild and tangled. He makes the air around him
blossom into neon and we believe that this strange
intense fever is one we alone have invented.

*

Geraldine Connolly is the author of four poetry collections including Province of Fire and Aileron. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, West Trestle Review and The Georgia Review. She received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Breadloaf Writers Conference and The Cafritz Foundation. She lives in Tucson, Arizona. http://www.geraldineconnolly.com.