The Courtship

The lace-edged handkerchief
Came first
And then you sent me a single
perfect rose
It’s the twenty-first century and
you’re courting me
Like it’s eighteen hundred
and ninety-five

Where is the red-hot passion
they talk about
Where is the look so filled
with meaning
That it can bring me right to the
edge of surrender
Dizzy and steaming with heat
and blind with lust

You’re one of the nicest men
I’ve ever met
But what I’m looking for now
is a bad boy
With an attitude and a two-
day growth of beard
Who will turn me upside down
and inside out

You say I’m asking to get
my heart destroyed
And you could very well
be right
But years from now as I sit on
my porch swing
I’ll remember this moment in
time with a smile