What matters

Fotografia Olho de Gato

It may be that it doesn’t matter

who or what or why you love.

(Maybe it matters when, and for how long.)

Of course, what matters is how strong.

Maybe the forbidden, the unbelievable,

or what doesn’t respond—

what grabs all and gives nothing—

what is ghoul or ghost,

what proves you a fool,

shrinks you, shortens your life,

if you love it, it doesn’t matter.

Only the love matters—

the stubbornness, or the helplessness.

At a certain chemical instant

in early youth, love’s trigger is cocked.

Whatever moves into focus

behind the cross hairs, magnifies,

is marked for target, injected with

magic shot. But the target doesn’t matter.

May Swenson