Love Poem

Our third date, at the same bar

as our first,

elbows edging across

a cold, polished table top.

Our second date, an anomaly,

at a Chinese restaurant,

its patrons elbow-to-elbow.

we were confused by ours

so close to theirs, and by each other.

Forbes once said (in a poem):

‘continually disappoint

the expectations of others,

this way you will come to hate yourself

& they will be charmed by your distress.’

As I wait for my hand

to find yours, I chant it

to myself, a mantra

for our parting, our eyes

spearing at the dark.

Prithvi Varatharajan is a writer, audio book producer, and commissioning editor at Cordite Poetry Review. His writing (poems, reviews, interviews, scholarship) has appeared widely in Australian and overseas journals.