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.
A retired reporter and editor, Stockton resident Howard Lachtman has written Delta-centered detective stories, Stockton Civic Theatre reviews and a variety of baseball tales for Soundings. In 2006. he was honored by the Stockton Arts Commission for “24 years of superior review and commentary on the performing and literary arts in Stockton.” He was recently surprised to learn that San Francisco’s Lowell High School has ranked him among its notable twentieth century alumni for his achievements as an American literary critic. Howard’s reaction to the news: “Now maybe I can get a date to the prom.”
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