Need
–Babette Deutsch

What do we need for love—a midnight fire

Flinging itself by fistfuls up the chimney

In soft bright snatches? Do we need the snow,

Gentle as silence, covering the scars

Of weeks of hunger, years of shabby having?

Summer or winter? A heaven of stars? A room?

The smiling mouth, the sadness of desire

Are everywhere the same. If lovers go

Along an unknown road, they find no less

What is familiar. Let them stay at home,

And all will still be strange. This they know

Who with each heartbeat fight the fear of change.

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash