posted July 09, 2003 11:55 PM              

It's Not Easy to Please a Virgin

Since you grumbled your way into my life
with your Venus-in-Virgo slide rules and scales
and measuring sticks of perfection

I seldom get excited unduly
I'm on time for appointments
I can spell words like lapis lazuli
my stomach is flatter, I stand up taller
my ego is smaller
my hair is back to mouse brown
I've stopped smoking and eating bread
I go to bed earlier and wiser
I don't argue with rude waiters
get impatient with slow elevators
or knock people down in the street to grab the first taxi
(well, not often)

But I still read Brenda Starr, Reporter
in the Sunday comics
wear pink goo on my lips
leave extravagant tips, when you're not looking
bite my nails now and then
sometimes forget to count to ten, before I speak and last week
I had lunch in one of those plastic coffee shops

I'm sorry about falling a little short like that
Its just that I have to save some pieces of myself
in case I ever get bored
with being so clever and beautiful and good
and have to put the old me back together again

I hope that never happens
because this new me
is maybe the most me of me
I've ever known

As for you
to be absolutely honest, as you've carefully taught me to be
you're still a little off-center
investigating truth, without consequences
and doing your thing
playing with platitudes
reading books about Buddha
to learn how to die before you've started to live
straining emotions through a sterile sieve
and scrubbing your squeaky clean ivory tower
with Brillo pads
each morning

posted July 10, 2003 12:15 AM              

sorry everyone, I don;t know how to make the indentations show

Venus in Virgo or Venus in Aries
NEVER MIND THE SUN SIGN

People who learn passion from a book
the kind they mail in a plain wrapper
promising to teach you
where the errogenous zones are hidden
and all that other jazz

can develop cardboard hearts and
paper emotions
which fool some of the people all of the time
and all of the people some of the time
but not anyone real

Did you ever meet a champion
who learned the perfect timing of golf
from looking at Arnold Palmer
swinging a club?

Did you ever know a man
who learned the flowing motion of football
by readingabout how Joe Namath does his thing
or even watching him pass the pigskin?

I mean, love has a rhythm too

To look at pictures
of people reaching for the miracle of sex
is like learning grief
from watching Coretta King's face on television
or Ethel Kennedy's expression
as her youngest child moves restlessly
among the shadows on the lawn
I look the other way
I already know
My heart learned grief by diving naked
into anguish
long ago
(though I've forgotten the exact day)

Maybe I've never dived so deeply
into that other urgent ocean of the soul
but I know this
People teach each other sex
and all those zones
if love was meant to be between them

to learn the words and music
of their own, alone and private song
together

So you read
One Hundred and Sixy-Nine New Ways
To Arouse Passion

and I'll read
Lady Chattery's Lover

posted July 11, 2003 11:24 AM              

I bought it from either Barnes & Noble online or Amazon.com. Aqua absentmindedness-can;t remember which one.

posted July 25, 2003 03:12 PM              

Venus in Virgo loves books (Virgo), intelligent discussions (Virgo), learning new things that will solve problems (Virgo)---and particularly to share them with others (Venus).

I believe, the only reason they are known for being picky . . . is so that they do not have to make too many changes and adjustments (Virgo). Less fine tuning to do, less work . . . and more peace of mind (Virgo) for them and for you.