Legal Is My Love by Bernadette Mayer

Legal is my love, not altered
i find him loved for being so
even if my love were illegal, you and i
would love him more, right? come home where
all is legal then, it’s illegal to smoke
in restaurants, you must smoke in the cold
parking lot, allocated to punishing environments
when you light up as if with love

i guess patriots don’t smoke; in new York city
a fancy restaurant has a heated stretch limousine
parked outside to smoke in after dinner
as in zeno’s paradox (even if you are a sinner)
reality does not reflect rationality (or vice versa)

From: Mayer, Bernadette, Poetry State Forest, 2008, New Directions: New York, p. 22.
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=k-ba81XvXLgC)

Date: 1995

By: Bernadette Mayer (1945- )