.
LOVE POTION NO. 9
This is the most beautiful day
Of all time: 80 clear degrees,
Summer sunlight jazzing a slope of trees
Like broccoli against the so-blue sea, boats,
Tiny jewels adrift, silent on the horizon.
From my car parked in front of a church
I can watch the most beautiful boy
I have ever seen mow the lawn: he’s blond, maybe 16,
Very tan, skinny, just wearing baggy black shorts,
And all the long young muscles move
Under his warm brown skin
As he shoves the big mower around,
His kid’s angel face placid and purposeful . . .
All the way back along the fast hilly highway
Stands of evergreens and oaks soak up the sun,
The radio blares, I am happy
Thinking of the boy and the sea. Racing
The twist of roads home, the beautiful gargle
Of twin camshafts at 6,000 rpm tells me
That this is all I need: 5 p.m. melon-colored sunlight
Slanting over the silver hood. What greens
In the trees, what a rich cerulean sky, what joy
Kicking it down into third
And screaming around the curve,
Soundgarden on the radio, and the retinal image
Of the grass-mowing kid even better than Tiepolo,
Better than Brahms, reachable, ecstatic, true.
O this is the world I want without end.
— Robert Long, “Blue”
POET * FRIEND * EDITOR
The Canio's Books Blog 
I’ve just finished reading Philip Schultz’s new book, Luxury. In it is “Welcome to the Springs”, inscribed, “In memory of Robert Long”. I didn’t recognize the name, though I’ve been reviewing poetry for some 35 years. Now I know what Long could do. Thanks for posting this sunny gem. As a Quaker and a gay man, I can say wholeheartedly, “Friend Long speaks my mind”.