Love Stories for Girls by Susana H. Case

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Love Stories for Girls 

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Every distortion I learned about love

came from romance comics,

and later, telenovelas.

I blame the words love at first sight.

I blame walking in the rain,

walking on beaches,

dancing on beaches.

I blame red convertibles.

I blame messages about the unimportance

of a career.

I blame unrealistically perfect bodies

and men with full heads of hair.

I blame super-long eyelashes

and the negative portrayal of eyeglasses.

I blame the idea of nice girls.

I blame kissing. Really—

as if kissing fries the brain

and afterward, everyone ends up in love

with an inappropriate person

and they’re never the same again.

I blame makeup that tears never smear.

I blame tears.

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Susana H. Case has authored eight books of poetry, most recently The Damage Done, Broadstone Books, 2022, which won her a third Pinnacle Book Achievement Award. Her books have previously also won an IPPY, a NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite award, and she was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the American Book Fest Award, and the International Book Awards. She co-edited, with Margo Taft Stever, the anthology I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe, Milk and Cake Press, 2022. Case currently is a co-editor of Slapering Hol Press. If This Isn’t Love is forthcoming from Broadstone Books. Susana H Case

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