A Valentine’s Day To-Do List

Editor’s note: Here, in poetic form, is the author’s advice to Valentine’s Day celebrants wondering how best to observe the holiday.  

All you need do is give your heart

to the most deserving — 

the lost child, the woman in search of herself,

or the one always there for you, patiently 

enduring your misdeeds in hope of reformation,

a stalwart guide to life who means what she says

when she says “We have to talk” or teases you with  

“Talk to me now or explain it to your parole officer.”  

Remember that nothing lasts forever

and sometimes not even until the end of February. 

The flowers wilt, the chocolates melt.   

The curtain descends, everything ends

too soon, as the old song says, too soon

unless you can make a day like this

or a love that comes but once a year 

last a little longer, or just long enough.