the romance novel

you think about writing
a romance novel.
on the glossy cover will
be a wind swept
panting couple
wearing what looks like
pirate costumes,
although the story
has nothing to do with pirates.
biff, or maybe brad
and jennifer fall in love
on a cruise ship,
on a trip to help
them forget their
former spouses who
both died mysteriously
in a train wreck,
maybe they were on
the same train, as
it crossed Siberia,
or Montana. the details
need to be ironed
out. maybe they aren't
really dead, and just
pretending to be dead
so that they can
get married under new
names, living
a new life in Moscow
as goat herders making
goat cheese,
or in Denver as ski
instructors, someplace
cold though so that
you can write lines
like her breath was
a fresh bloom of hope
as they kissed
under the winter moon or
his manhood was aroused
like an icicle
as she wilted like
a flower in his arms
waiting to be watered.
it will be the first
of a trilogy of books,
that will get steamier
with each new volume
so that readership
doesn't diminish on
account of the lame
plot and writing,
but the third volume
will have maps
and a geneaology
so that you can keep
track of who's who.
following the books will
come the movie,
and a whole line of
pirate costumes,
although the story has
nothing to do with pirates.