Missing Valentine

The sadness of poetry
and what embarrasses
and ensorcels me
and almost everyone about it
is that you can only come
for a few minutes
to a full stop of the heart
oddly just long enough
for me to miss you
though in its shadow-half
the leaves of paranoia
reveal its disappointment
long after the cause
for it has dissipated
into the outer world
where these remaining
plants and animals
are all that’s left
of the beautiful
and noble.