Poetry Friday - the 'biggest' loser

While it is still Friday, I shall get this up (and then learn how to schedule posts so poetry Friday actually happens on Friday). I am going to feature Sophie Hannah this month, because I had a hard time choosing between several of her poems for this week. Here is one that is inspiring. So much of what goes on in 'romantic' interactions is just a more sophisticated adult version of sulking because you didn't get what you wanted that it is good to be reminded to aim higher than that.

The Good Loser

I have portrayed temptation as amusing.

Now he can either waver or abstain.

His is a superior kind of losing

And mine is an inferior brand of gain.

His sacrifice, his self-imposed restriction

Will get through this controversy intact

For his is a superior kind of fiction

And mine is an inferior brand of fact.

I have displayed my most attractive feature

And he his least, yet still the match seems odd

For I am a superior kind of creature

And he is an inferior brand of god

And if he cuts me off without a warning

His is the book from which I'll take a leaf

For his is a superior kind of mourning

And ours a most inferior brand of grief.

Sophie Hannah, Hotels Like Houses