From the Fishouse

She has painted her lips
hibiscus pink.
The upper lip dips
perfectly in the center

like a Valentine heart.
It makes sense to me --
that the lips,
the open

ah of the mouth
is shaped more like a heart
than the actual human heart.
I remember the first time I saw it --

veined, and shiny
as the ooze of a snail --
if this were what
we had been taught to draw

how differently we might have
learned to love.