Strange Love

by Samuel Lynn-Evans
(London)

I'd split up with mine,
She with Hers.
Her boyfriend had been a pig,
Mine, a shrew that I could not tame.
United by pain,
Over our separate break-ups,
Penny and I became much closer.

As with many good things,
It started simply,
Tea and TV,
Where conversation was quaint,
And acted as diversion from the pain
Our former loves had left us...
And so for a while
We would flick between the Olympics and Jeremy Kyle,
And laugh at the contrast
Between two poles of the human race,
And I would suddenly see her face
Begin to glow, our eyes would catch
As I sudden felt meaning
In previously meaningless contacts.
The brush of her leg now made me think
I noticed extended hand-touching in passings of drink
And one night late as we lay
We realised we had more than simply words to say
but feelings!
To release our sorrowed clenched fists,
We kissed.

I awoke the next day and left,
Scared of theft
Of a healthy relationship,
Scared of change, of what it meant,
But as soon as I missed her,
I knew I had to go back
Besides I had nowhere else to go
Nowhere else was home.
And though it was awkward
As we restarted the TV,
The night naturally began to end more frequently
With us together.

And so a relationship came to bloom
Where we sang a lover's song,
And of course it was not too long
Before our tight circle's of friends would call
And say you two? But that's so wrong!
She's your sister!'

And they'd say 'despite your affection,
Your love is reducing gene variability for natural selection!
There's this fact that she's your sister,
And I shan't forgive your insolence'
And I'd say fact that she's my sister,
Or merely trivial coincidence... ?

So now I write this explanation
With no hesitation
In saying I shall have no regrets
Even as I sit writing in jail
For multiple accounts of incest
Love is true when it's blind,
Love does not discriminate kind,
You loved a girl and then you kissed,
You leave her and you miss her,
Well friends, love is just the same for me
Except my love is for my sister.