He has a hard time believing

that a woman could yearn

for a man as a man yearns

for a woman. They are

“sugar and spice and

everything nice,” distant,

aloof, crystalline, cold,

spicy, too hot to touch. Males

are “snips and snails and

puppy dog tails,” They’re

snippety short on what’s

long in life, slow to grow,

doofusy, a swinging,

swaying Chocolate Lab’s

tail full of neediness and

please pet me, please.

They stumble and bumble

and fall head over heels

while cool, cold, icy

cubes of sugar with

so many sharp corners

only melt in coffee or tea

but certainly not he

and his charmless arms.

Or maybe it’s the other

way around or better

yet, both and — sugar

melts, the dog laps up

the sweetness, the

tail wags, they fall

headlong in love

which turns out to be

romance — some say

God’s trick to secure

marriage and the future

of the species – hormones

as a divine joke.

Really?

That’s not very romantic.