Religion protects us from the law.
The law protects us from religion—
and both sometimes sing in poetry:
“I slept with her husband—
but she cannot murder me.”
The Founding Fathers were puritans—
so their laws do not mention sex—
which means their laws are loose.
Paradoxes which perplex!
Legislators, unlike poets, are ignorant of love.
Commandments on sex
are handed down from above.
The Muse, my god, entertains
love—yet gives me only rhymes
for my paradoxical pains.
The best poems deal with love—
but the law surprises,
by awarding poems on trees
and architecture, prizes.
She won a prize, but her kisses proved to be rotten.
O that beauty won a prize!
But now she is forgotten.