How could I love thee?

Posted on 2023/02/14 by Bartholomew Barker

How could I love thee?

When you’d smack your lips
as you ate apple pie
When you’d snore through the night
’til the sun rose in the sky
When you’d drum your fingers
or bite your nails
When you’d order extra onions
or drive past yard sales

But I knew I loved you
because you’d smile at my bad jokes
apologize with flowers
and hold me under the umbrella
during April showers

And as our sundial decays to rust
our garden blooms with well earned trust

(Another Valentine’s Day poem, this one written with my friends at Charles House.)

About Bartholomew Barker

Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
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26 Responses to How could I love thee?

  1. trE says:
    2023/02/14 at 19:42

    This is so beautiful, Bart.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. K.Hartless says:
    2023/02/14 at 21:06

    How lovely. The final stanza particularly moving.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. jai says:
    2023/02/14 at 22:25

    Beautiful, Bartholomew…what love should be.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Max Ethan says:
    2023/02/15 at 02:03

    This is so beautiful, Bartholomew

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. luisa zambrotta says:
    2023/02/15 at 08:16

    I find this poem wonderful! This is Love❣️

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. JeanMarie says:
    2023/02/16 at 05:22

    That last couplet is so sweet. Ya’ll did well

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. Dawn Pisturino says:
    2023/02/20 at 10:23

    That’s so beautiful!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. Milena Alien says:
    2023/03/08 at 16:40

    I think about it a lot, and here you got all the answers for me

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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