Leaving Passion (Poetry)

It is better to dream hopeful
of finding great love
than to discover the love you have
is less than ideal

the romantic imagination wishes for
such impossible perfection
reality so rarely matches up
fails even to come close
to that elevated state

the risk of disillusion
is inevitably great
so it’s more sensible to settle for
a less demanding affection
that might prove sustainable
and warms with a constant heat
than grand passion’s all-consuming blaze
ecstatic for a while until
the flames burn low...

then it’s certain there’ll be cooler days
and the creeping chilling fear that
something’s changed —
the giddy fever’s lost.

Leave passion to the novelist
saved in books beside the bed
where fiction thrills the hungry heart
and reality still manages
to keep a level head.