Lovers - S. Dunn

Dunn won a Pulitzer in 2000 for Different Hours but it's lines like the last one in this one, with its dark truth, that tell me he's "got it".   Setting the stage for a line like that is difficult.  To do it and make it look effortless is what separates the hack from the poet.  *The link from his name is to his website.  He lives in Maryland and is available for evening or short rentals.  (Poets have to eat....)
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Lovers
To keep the one you want
dig up a footprint of hers
and put it in a flowerpot.
Then plant a marigold, the flower
that doesn’t fade.
And love her.
If she’s distant now
it’s for a reason beyond control.
So don’t tamper with the impressions
left by her body when
for the last time
she leaves your bed.
Just smooth them out and forget her.
Who is not vulnerable
to a stronger magic (the
broken glass, the bullets
in a yawn),
the terrible power of the one less in love.

                                                                                     Stephen Dunn - American  (desolation)