Love: just a quack cure, or panacea?
Could it heal all ills, like romantics say
or is what's actually revealed here
a deeper need, to keep hard truths at bay

with rose-tinted fantasies of 'The One' -
meeting your matchless other in a soul
who'll not rest 'til your loneliness is gone;
who'd nurture you and catch you, should you fall;

who'd be both free spirit yet faithful muse?
That angel, who embodies your ideal
though: don't you think it might all be a ruse
to keep you from focussing on what's real
here: daily compromise, facing down strife,
the pratfalls and petty trials of life?

MP 22-261023