From the Sonnets of Paolo Malatesta
Paolo considers Francesca's use of technology
She tagged me in a wedding photograph
on FACEBOOK where she has me as a "friend".
The self-same image, filtered for a laugh,
appears on INSTAGRAM. That's not the end
of her on-line activities: she tweets -
her TWITTER name: @francesca18.
She posts her recipes on PINTEREST.
She also blogs on TUMBLR, so I've seen.
She sells her stuff on ETSY and EBAY.
She buys her books from AMAZON (.com)
and streams her music from ITUNES. (I pay).
Using her IPAD seems to keep her calm.
I wonder if she's using dating apps
like TINDER. Best that I don't know... perhaps.
Paolo on the sonnet
Don't fuck with the sonnet. That's what she said
when I compared her to a summer's day
and told her Shakespeare, hath he hath a way
with her, could make her as well known, well read,
as Petrarch's Laura who, already wed
like Dante's Beatrice, remained aloof
and did, thereby, exemplify the proof
love poetry originates in bed.
Don't fuck with the sonnet. But, on my life,
I'd have our amours, lately, as perused
as Milton on his late espoused wife
or Mrs. Browning on the man she wooed
or Keats on Fanny in the midst of strife.
Don't fuck with the sonnet. Don't be so crude.