A touch of hands, a cheek stroke, a kiss,

These are the things I especially miss,

On this deathly still day, and an evening alone,

Is my Valentine’s way, now that you are gone.

You’ll be dancing somewhere, how you loved to dance,

But when I waltzed with you it lacked in romance,

A man will be talking, you’ll laugh for a while,

Where my jokes fell flat and never raised smile.

Will you pause for a while when you reach the front door,

Are the lights on or off when your dress hits the floor?

I sit in the chair worn down by my rear,

I sip, without tasting, a cheap can of beer,

My moccasin slippers with toe poking through,

Remind me of nights when once I poked you.

Smiling faces fill the night,

Arm in arm, with smug delight,

My cynic’s cold heart stays above,

These public shows of gaudy love.

Happy couples, two by two, happy couples, me and you,

Happy couples, so frou-frou, curtains closed I hide from view.

On this day for lovers, so excited,

I find myself quite uninvited,

So I spend Valentine’s ‘pour un’,

Another year gone – when will I learn?

I wrote this poem as a counter-balance to the endless syrupy verses that fill a million cheap Valentine’s Day cards at this time of year. To my mind, Valentine’s Day is just an arbitrary celebration designed to fill shops and restaurants in the otherwise fallow period between Christmas and Easter.

There is undue pressure put on couples to express their ’love’ for each other on this day, and to express it with soon-dead flowers, over-fattening meals or tacky toys. The idea that love should properly be expressed every day, rather than once a year, seems to be overshadowed by the rampant commercialism of February 14th.

For single people, this day can be the loneliest and saddest of the year. A single person never feels as sad as when they are surrounded by the unfettered happiness of others, a true Valentine’s Day Massacre of the heart, it’s a lot like going on italy ski holidays all alone when everyone else is in a couple…