list poem

Unlovables

There are certain seats on airplanes
that can’t arouse affection, several metropoles
of the Midwest impossible to warm up to.

Some people can’t be loved, whole groups of them,
such as mall-trawlers, teenaged and petulant.
You draw an arc around them.

Date-riddled fruitcake. Tin cans
and tap water earn no one’s ardor.

There’s that table near the restrooms
at Mauro’s Trattoria
that you don’t want to sit at, ever.

Some creatures are better left unloved,
like the black rat snake of Canada.

In some cases, you long to love:
a feted painting, for example,

or the nice man who adores
your every pore, whom
your mother loves
but you like less
and less.

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