My Best Regards

We love the things we love for what they are.
— Robert Frost, “Hyla Brook”

I know it’s necessary that I force
myself to overlook your faults because
you always have my best regards, of course.

Because you fill my life with spine-leafed gorse,
and since I cannot put my life on pause,
I know it’s necessary I use force,

so I deride your actions till I’m hoarse.
But times when I reward you with applause
you always get my best — regards, of course.

Whenever I feel pain, you are the source
and then I rake you with emotion’s claws,
I know. It’s necessary when I force

you to experience some true remorse,
but still you shatter all the lovers’ laws
you always have — with best regards, of course.

Convinced about the path I must endorse,
despite my love for you, with all your flaws,
I know it’s necessary that I force
you to accept my best regards, though coarse.

***

Craig W. Steele is a professor of biology and health sciences at Edinboro University in northwestern Pennsylvania. In his continuing quest to become a widely-read unknown poet, his poems most recently appear or are forthcoming in The Lyric (Spring 2018), Oracle Fine Arts Review, Mused: the BellaOnline Literary Review, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, and The Penwood Review. He continues to write poetry as “The Writer’s Poet” for Extra Innings online.