Poetry
Charley Allen
Blues Kind of Love
There is love
and then, there is love.
See, it's like this: there's a kiss
and then there's a "rubber-legged, can't come up for air, think I just
might drown in her" kind of kiss,
there's a smile
and then there's a
"sweet jesus I better be repenting tonight lord because
I'm gonna need it with a look like that, a cold shower and an hour of
prayer and good lord please forgive me now cause the things she's saying with
those big green eyes are gonna send me straight to hell and I don't even
mind"
kind of smile
there's a touch
and then there's a
"fire in my skin goes right up from the palm of my
hand and if her fingertip lingers for longer than five seconds I think I
just might burst into flames right here and ain't nothing in this world
can do a damn thing about it"
kind of touch
there's a laugh
and then there's a
"god in heaven no angel ever sounded this pretty, not
old Coltrane or Bessie or Billie--ain't a one of 'em that's got a not on
this girl"
kind of laugh.
See, there's love
and then there's a
"gonna throw myself right off the side of the world, rip
out my heart and feed it to that old mangy railroad dog, gonna die right
here and now if I ever so much as make this baby girl cry"
kind of love.
There's love
and then there's a
"sprinklin' dirt in my coffee, drinking words over
water, living on laughs and soft whispers and my ribs still not gonna
show cause ain't a thing so sweet as what she's feeding me"
kind of
love.
See, man it's like this--
there's love
and then, there is love.
This poem appeared in Notations literary magazine, Murray State
University, 2003.
