one love

An extra poem for today (or for April 16), only a little bit because I was talking with a friend about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead the other day, and that play always makes me think of tennis. Tennis, and death possibly being a boat.

tennis players
and poets
talk to themselves
one complaining
of unforced errors
the other lamenting
lovers
not here

poets find wonderful
witty repartee
to captivate
the imagination
of the beloved
tennis players curse
in languages we don't
understand
explaining the loss
of points

poets understand loss
old age marriage
fatigue and well
just not going to
make any sense
to this person
     this time
game point
set point
match point
     no love

—Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), "The International Open (Tennis Players vs. Poets)," from Chasing Utopia, 2013.