I like your lean spine

Love is an awkward word

Not what I mean and
too much like magazine stories
in stilted dentists’
waiting rooms.
How can anyone use it?

I’d rather say
I like your
lean spine
or your eyebrows
or your shoes

but just by standing there and
being awkward

you force me to speak

love.

[Margaret Atwood, ‘4’, from ‘Letters, Towards and Away’ in The Circle Game]