Poets’ Corner: Feela for Valentine’s Day!

12 Feb Poets’ Corner: Feela for Valentine’s Day!

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”- Charles Schultz. Or a poem by regular contributor, poet extraordinaire David Feela which, according to its author, is not “a gushy traditional love poem, but certainly gushy about romance…” Because on the High Holy day for Cupid – read Valentine’s Day –  who needs more flowers, more Hallmark treacle? Feela’s words are sweet – but with his usual side of spice.

David Feela

Hotel Calypso

When room service arrives
I can’t believe how her tresses
cascade over her shoulders
or the Mediterranean blue of her eyes.

I hold the door wide as the sea itself
and she sets a silver tray
on the black marble coffee table.
I should ask, “How much do I owe you?”

but I’m afraid she’ll say “Seven years”
so I just nod and smile,
as if I don’t speak any language,
as if I’m afflicted by stupidity,

as if I am too old to care.
But I’m not illiterate.
I’ve plodded through Odysseus’s suffering
at the hands of his nymph.

My bed last night radiated such softness
I ordered a pot of coffee
to stir my dreams like the surf
crashing below my balcony.

On this island of Gozo
there’s a cave I want to visit tomorrow
which my tour book describes as
“just a narrow opening

at the top of a steep cliff”
and as she stoops
to pour the coffee I glimpse
where all the trouble began.