Making the Rounds

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Let us to war then. To siege and assault!

Although we proclaim it is nobody’s fault

We declare with conviction

 We will soon come to blows:

In war as in love, just anything goes.

*

We love the victorious but practise fierce combat

And quickly start over, with someone to pick at.

In love or in war, strict laws get upset

As warriors merit a new sobriquet

While weaker combatants so frequently win

The upshot of warring remains a great sin.

*

Turn the world upside down and show us a portal

A chance to desist, facing struggle immortal.

Lips become armour: a mouth turning weapon

Shoots arrows that injure or wound, whom we reckon

The unhappy enemy, our resolute friend

Upon whom it’s our function with wrath to descend.

*

Lips are for kissing. They part without favour

Nay, they return as the moon must, to savour

All that is true and desired in love

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© HMH, 2022