What It’s Like to Fall In Love
by Heidi Seaborn

Read the automated transcript.

I fall in love today
with the man fixing my water faucets,
how he crouches in his boots, feels
his way deftly to salve the leak.
I’m in love with dandelions & ugly bobs
& even morning glory as I yank
their roots free from this dark & luscious soil.
O I love, love the rhododendron
blushing newborn pink, love
the neighbor’s rosy plum vine maple
& love the neighbor too,
how she’s a dead ringer for Bette Midler
& who doesn’t love Bette!
I even love her little dogs—yip & yap.
O today I fall more deeply in love
with my sweet dog, how he rouses
finch & robin from the hydrangea,
barks a greeting at passersby
& they bark back, their people
slowing to lean over our picket fence.
I am in love with strangers today.
Sun brushes foreheads & cheeks.
Shirts & baseball caps rainbow the sidewalk
& smiles curve like tulip petals splayed open.
When bicyclists ribbon yellow, fuchsia, lime
as they flash by, I call out I love you!
O I even love the houseflies flicking
the kitchen window, wanting nothing
more than to escape.

"What It's Like to Fall In Love" by Heidi Seaborn. Used by permission of the poet.