The "What"

--by Ellie Parker

(in the style of Alice Notley)

What are you in love with? What. Not
who. Who implies a face, a name, a some
body. What. What turned that lump of flesh
into a beating heart?
It can't be a mantra of "because I told you so's" & norms & have to's.
It must be an endless list
of want to's & need to's & the slightest of inflections &
feelings beyond what can be encompassed in a he/she/it/they/them
Or even us.
That is the meaning of the "what".
It surpasses the who's & how's.
It is the what.
It is the dichotomy of never understanding why,
but knowing that it's right all the same.