Vilentine

Holding this glass

nervously on hold

foreseeable crash

so skip the prosaic

''Cheers to us!''
''And bottoms up!''

exhaust manifold

line in trochaic.

As an appetiser

dished cold cuts

sipping tranquilliser

wearing a blindfold

alcoholic spike

jackknife alike

a heart flambé

main course sauté.

Miles tailback on the tray

blocked romantic shunpike

lorry on the motorway

its driver lost on a hike

at the wayside a recess

hidden by ivy horseplay

for afters, glace à la fraise.

Spiked drink with poison

words of rejection

mouth spits noisome

vomit befouling refection

prepared with love and care

mandrakes give the answer

to heartbreaking insomnia

film noir projected on the cornea.

Your loyal servant

to a lass observant

blessed be me sommelier

taste buds swim in Montpellier

finest of old wine

for keeps better in time

heady sweet taste

washes down the toxic waste.

Aftertaste of kerbside sewers

malapert acrid connoisseurs

grapes' bunch of false wooers

chipped away at one

wooden heart chopped by hewers

moonshine glasses fire a shotgun.

Not an urge fetishistic

but true love spousal

no craving nihilistic

but true soul arousal

for we are not callow

delete youngsters shallow

replace with conscious people

in lieu thereof

love can be the steeple

whose bells will sound

mutual respect paramount.

Cut me up

and I'll bleed you

no measuring cup

can quantify my affection

you are my elixir

flower me, I lean

- my blinding sun -

to your direction

other perfect fit

for me, none.

What is it for

rivers of alcohol

hiding a shameful tear

behind potion streams

pages of a pamphleteer

sprawling lucid dreams

Shakespearean reworks

melodrama freeze framed

eyes stung by forks

for succubi to be entertained.