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True Love  
by Barry Gifford

Your sickness made me
a little sick, it's
true—I still
feel it
     Mayakovsky got down
          on his knees
     and declared
               his love
to his last 
          mistress
        a few hours after
           he'd met her
Remember me 
at the hotel
            in Paris,
         on my knees
            in the lift?
We're all the same
men of too much passion
and a little talent—
    some a little more
                  than others
    We fool ourselves
       into thinking
                  we're strong
           then complain
      the rest of our lives
          crippled by
            the consequences



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This poem previously appeared in the New Yorker. Barry Gifford is the author of Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels and many other books. For further information please visit his website at www.barrygifford.com.
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