Anti-Love Poem

Sometimes you don't want to love the person you love 

you turn your face away from that face

whose eyes lips might make you give up anger 

forget insult          steal  sadness of not wanting 

to love      turn away then turn away    at breakfast

in the evening      don't lift your eyes from the paper

to see that face in all its seriousness    a

sweetness of concentration     he holds his book

in his hand        the hard-knuckled winter wood-

scarred fingers      turn away      that's all you can

do      old as you are to save yourself      from love

/ Grace Paley

// visual: Dasha Vérone