Valentine I - Love with his gilded bow

from Three Valentines .​.​. Elizabeth Bishop (2017) by Thomas Oboe Lee

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Love with his gilded bow and crystal arrows
has slain us all, has pierced the English sparrows
who languished for each other in the dust,
while from their bosoms, puffed with hopeless lust,
the red drops fall.

The robins’ wings fan fev’rish arcs and swirls
attempting hugs, while Venus pats her darling’s curls
and just to polish off his aim, suggests
some unrequited passions in the breasts
of am’rous bugs.

See, up there, pink and plumb and smug in sashes,
the little bastards grin, watching the pretty rainbows on his lashes …
Oh sweet, sweet love - go kick thy naughty self
around the clouds, or prick thy naughty self
upon a gilded pin.

Elizabeth Bishop

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Thomas Oboe Lee Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thomas Oboe Lee was born in China in 1945. He lived in São Paulo, Brazil, for six years before coming to the United States in 1966. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, he studied composition at the New England Conservatory and Harvard University. He has been a member of the music faculty at Boston College since 1990. ... more

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