by Janet Kuypers
a heart is supposed to mean romance
but the deep dark red suggests lust
the cupid suggests true love anew
but a child knows only dependency
love hits you like a ton of bricks
and you only hurt the ones you love
I keep hearing of all these conflicts
and I'm trying to make sense of it all
and I'm mixing my metaphors now
I'm mixing my cocktails on a saturday night
throw love in with vodka and lime
and a little cointreau and you have
an absolutely perfect martini, well
that's what I hear so I keep drinking
and mixing and drinking and trying
you know, I've heard that for an added kick,
keep in the love but add just a splash of lust
the way that deep red heart of romance
suggests so much more than candy and flowers
because really, when it comes down
to it, when you get all those metaphors
together even though they seem to mean
so many different things, well,
when you get the right martini recipe,
well, every ingredient is so necessary
lust and love and all that other good-
tasting stuff that goes down so easy
well, every ingredient is necessary
in that perfect drink because everything
seems to come together so well
and everything suddenly means
so much even if it's only a drink and
even if it's only a cheesey metaphor
and suddenly that's okay
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Professional performance artist and publisher Janet Kuypers (http://www.janetkuypers.com) is a writer & photographer (and also a minister), editing 2 literary magazines while running Scars Publications (http://scars.tv), publishing magazines, books & CDs. She has 70+ books published (poetry, prose, novels, art), sung in 3 bands, and her CD releases (40+ in 2010) appear at iTunes & other online vendors., Kuypers has been profiled in such magazines as Nation and Discover U, won the award for a Poetry Ambassador and was nominated as Poet of the Year. She has also been highlighted on radio stations, has also appeared on national and local television repeatedly, and ran two Internet radio stations (2005-2009)., She has performed spoken word and music across the country, including in a show at the Albuquerque Spoken Word Festival during the National Poetry Slam, as well as a climactic feature at the 2006 Society of Professional Journalism Expo's Chicago Poetry Showcase; her bands have had concerts in Chicago and Alaska; in 2003 she hosted and performed at her weekly poetry and music open mike "Sing Your Life ". Starting in 2010 Janet Kuypers also hosts "the Cafe" weekly Chicago poetry open mike (http://www.chaoticarts.org/thecafe), with weekly poetry video and pod casts.
Last updated August 18, 2011