Otherwise

           Otherwise

You do not meet your own desires in those

You love.  You cannot find yourself in men

Or women, even women who transpose

Your feelings into mountain and braw glen

With mist that rivals healing of the bone,

Or men who stroke emotion in your veins.

The secret that you need is not a groan

Which others can deliver.  Labor pains

By definition are interior.

The absolutes that others can give birth

To for you are mismatched, ulterior,

And miscarriages.  They have the worth

Of counterfeit roulette chips in Reno.

Others offer only a casino.