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On The Veneration of St. Valentine, 2019

A Year of Sonnets — 042/365

Zach J. Payne
1 min readFeb 15, 2019

And why does Ever After never last that long —
leaving you the rest of your life with nothing to do but die?

— Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Feeling Electric

for C.A.W.

No, love is not a synonym for joy,
the gentleness of fingers intertwined:
for once the mortal body is destroyed
their lover must persist — and nevermind
the myth of God that gentle spirits spin;
if Heaven is, it lies beyond our hands
and God would never deign to jump on in,
to intercede, to hear human demands.

And, so, we love in anguish, holding on
to scraps of memory as they endure
the empty years that steal the swell and song,
that love of ours, once crystalline and sure
of everything to come: how we would shine
when destiny allowed; when you were mine.

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Zach J. Payne
Zach J. Payne

Written by Zach J. Payne

(He/They) Poet. Thespian. YA Novelist.

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