A Poem That I Actually Love...

Let me preface this by saying I really am not a fan of most poems. This one, though, is quite the exception:

Safe Sex by Donald Hall

If he and she do not know each other, and feel confident

they will not meet again; if he avoids affectionate words;

if she has grown insensible skin under skin; if they desire

only the tribute of another's cry; if they employ each other

as revenge on old lovers or families of entitlement and steel--

then there will be no betrayals, no letters returned unread,

no frenzy, no hurled words of permanent humiliation,

no trembling days, no vomit at midnight, no repeated

apparition of a body floating face-down at the pond's edge

First of all, the poem's title is a play on words. Although the first stanza is alluding to a relationship that may not be physically safe, it is more emotionally safe than the relationship from the second stanza. It is saying that with a commitment comes the risk of it ending poorly. If one decides not to make a commitment, then although they will never get to experience all of the good that comes with a relationship, they will never be making themselves susceptible to heartbreak. In order to find love, you have to put yourself out there, realizing that things very well may not work out in the end. If, though, the pair is "confident they will not meet again," they do not have to worry about the "betrayals" and "frenzy" that may come with a commitment. In other words, the safer sex, contrary to popular belief, may be the one between two strangers looking for nothing more than a good time...