It really is all in Neruda...

Fable of the Mermaid and the Drunks

~ Pablo Neruda

All those men were there inside,
when she came in totally naked.
They had been drinking: they began to spit.
Newly come from the river, she knew nothing.
She was a mermaid who had lost her way.
The insults flowed down her gleaming flesh.
Obscenities drowned her golden breasts.
Not knowing tears, she did not weep tears.
Not knowing clothes, she did not have clothes.
They blackened her with burnt corks and cigarette stubs,
and rolled around laughing on the tavern floor.
She did not speak because she had no speech.
Her eyes were the colour of distant love,
her twin arms were made of white topaz.
Her lips moved, silent, in a coral light,
and suddenly she went out by that door.
Entering the river she was cleaned,
shining like a white stone in the rain,
and without looking back she swam again
swam towards emptiness, swam towards death.

[love is more thicker than forget]

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall

more seldom than a wave is wet

more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win

less never than alive

less bigger than the least begin

less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly

and more it cannot die

than all the sky which only

is higher than the sky

E.E. Cummings, “[love is more thicker than forget]” from Complete Poems 1904-1962.

13 Ways of Being Mauled by a Tiger

1. A tiger never changes its stripes. 

2. The stripes camouflage the danger. You can't see until it's too late.

3. The impenetrable eyes: You'll only find yourself staring back.

4. The growl begins as a playful purr. You think it's a game. You're a fool.

5. You don't mind the claws.

6. The chase! The game is fun; the rules keep changing.

7. Tigers love to loll in the sun. You love that too.

8. Water. You think you're safe. Tigers swim.

9. The trees. Tigers climb.

10. Those gleaming teeth, precise, deadly. Tantalizing.

11. The beguiling smile hides the darkest night of your soul.

12. Your desire: Eros. Way too much fucking éros.

13. Death drive: Thanatos. You chose this. You've been warned.