51.

Palm trees came to France in 1864

And so were not with Petrarch at Avignon.

They are a new kind of love plant: time shifts

Even for poets and lovers. The mad

Are aware of so much we are not:

They do not fret over the same conventions.

They are not sure Laura is your name

Or the one they would choose whether your eyes

Were not like the sun. They have no bias

Against colour, and blonde is just one

Option. Often they have more to worry about —

Their next meal, for instance. Dreams

For them are armies of the night: they fear

Drugs and involuntary incarceration.

Some have seen angels and have known love.