Appraisal

What’s the current market value of a hug, caress or kiss?

Why would any self-respecting person get engrossed in this?

Isn’t it a tad surprising we’d make such hullabaloo

Of this silly, unproductive, non-remunerative goo?

That’s the miracle of romance and of loving: that we choose

To pursue ridiculous intangibles among the ooze

Of lace valentines and candies, in hand-holding, making eyes

Like moo-cows and fuzzy puppies at each other—but the prize

Found in all this crazy weirdness, wacky though our loving be,

Is the exponential return on this small investment that we see

When beloved turns to lover and responds in foolish kind:

That’s the truth toward which we hover when two loves get so entwined.