Today’s prompt. Love poems are a staple of the poetry scene. It’s pretty hard to be a poet and not write a few – or a dozen – or maybe six books’ worth. But because so many love poems have been written, there are lots of clichés. Fill your poems with robins and hearts and flowers, and you’ll sound more like a greeting card than a bard. So today, I challenge you to write a “loveless” love poem. Don’t use the word love! And avoid the flowers and rainbows.

Only for You

By Scott Bailey © 2015

Only for you
Do I shoulder the collar
I pull the plough and furrow

Only for you
Do I labour all day
To bring the bread and water

Only for you
Do I toil my days
Until my limbs are broken

Only for you
Do I endure the whip
The cursing and the shouting

I could roam free
Over hill and dale
Run through deep green grass

And let the wind blow
Through my mane
And drink fresh mountain tarns

I could follow my dreams
Into the clouds
And fly with birds on high

But I curb my dreams
Relent freedoms sweetness
Shrug the reins back on

But only for you
Only for you