From “Love poems for Raymond”

Sweetheart, I was thinking

[Untitled]

Sweetheart, I was thinking this afternoon

How I might understand you, love you better

And enter a greater part of your world.

So I came up with a brilliant idea:

I need to study Chemistry!

 ~

Now I do not intend to make you work

(You already put in long enough hours)

And I would not wish myself on any

Scientist as his pupil given

My own considerable limitations

(I am scientifically illiterate and

Never even got through trigonometry).

 ~

But somewhere must exist a chemistry book

For the clueless, liberal arts refugee

Who ended up loving a master of science

And wants to see that much more of a

Glimmer of the intellectual life

Of the man he loves.

~

My love, help me discover

More of your world.

[San Francisco, August 1994]