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Explaining Love As Somone Who’s Never Been in Love

By Aaron Suranofsky

Love sounds like beef jerky,
sometimes a quick snack—tangy and tender,
squeezing juice over your gums
as you stir the ooze of savory slime.

Sometimes dry, grinding, sucking out a shallow
taste that gets stuck in your teeth,
that you might lick at later
when it’s had time to soften.

Sometimes expensive for a bag of meat
you chew into too fast,
leaving a film in your throat,
a guilty migraine, and high blood pressure.

But sometimes it’s a slab of fresh venison.
A pair of sweat-stank muscles strip skin,
craft it from a wild passion, put it under a smoke blanket.
Finish to a filthy whisper of spices.

Your mouth ignites, gently chewing, a tongue massage
coaxes a salty taste slurped into every taste bud,
seeping phlegm thick sparks down your neck
before swallowing, satisfied.

Filed Under: Poetry

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