We often find love in the most obscure places. Valentine's Day is a day of remembering.

I find myself nestled within a dark smoke filled room
complete with stale air and stale women.

I oft come here to escape my professional life and become
one with the sublime normalcy that I find here.

Every Friday she is here. Dancing in such a provocative way she seduces my mind not into lust but into deeper thought.

I am captured by the power of her act as I watch the twenties dangling from her g-string.

I say not a word as she twists, bends and turns for my enjoyment.

I look deep within this woman with haunting bold brown eyes and flowing locks of golden hair.

Your eyes betray your thoughts is always my line as others venture more erotic verses in an effort to capture her attention.

Her looks evaporate my thoughts and float them like the swirls of smoke that fill the room as I do my best to maintain her eyes.

I slip her a simple note wrapped within some green and tell her I understand.

Fridays come and go as I stay away from my conjured up normal and put my thoughts in perspective.

I see her again as I daydream of those Goldie lock looks and those ribbons of curls pushing a shopping cart of groceries across a I don’t give a shit parking
lot.

I smile as I fight back a tear while I watch those three little blonde gals I knew she had climb into that beat to hell van she was driving.

As she loads her precious cargo, I run to catch her now fleeing cart. She looks at me like many times before, yet she is anchored firm ready for my questions that never come.

She tells me that she misses me on Friday nights and asks me to come for her
Valentine’s day special.

She hands me back a note she said she wanted to give to me for weeks but I never returned.

My mind never quits studying this powerful woman. I know she is my equal in life. My equal in mind, body and spirit. Her grit to bare all for those she loves cements my now concrete vision of tomorrow.

A simple note with a thank you and a smiley face brought justice and peace to my mundane world.

I have found life and love in the surreal world of a woman, a mother, and a stripper.

I’m dressed to the nines as I enter once again to see her dance.

I see her serving drinks before her show as she waits on my lonely table. I say thanks for the note as I drink my over priced beer.

She smiles and brushes the back of my neck like only a seductress can do.

I watch the lights dim and I blot out the jeers, the filth, and the smoke from this place as she struts on stage wearing nothing but a cupids heart and her bow and arrow.

She moves with dignified grace and saunters back and forth capturing men’s lust and their money.

I am marveled at the simplicity of this life and the gut-less satisfaction of some.

As her music winds down I catch her drawing cupid’s bow back as her arrow flies straight for my chest.

She bows to her mob as I hold the nerf like dart in my hands. It smells of sweet vanilla and jasmine. The words thank you for being a human man are written in pink.

She sat down at my table as her work was done as some came to gawk or show their jealous nature, yet others to say good catch.

I just smiled as I held out my hand as we walked away from that place forever.

It’s been twenty years today since I caught cupid’s dart as the aroma of vanilla  still fills my eyes with tears.

As the lights dim in my room, soft jazz fills my ears as I watch my beautiful wife, cupid’s stripper, glide flawlessly across the room, dressed in nothing but cupid’s smile.

Rb. 2007