Valentine's poems

My Poem-a-Day email was one by Shelley -- very nice. But I'm a little too old and jaded to become sentimental about young love.  It reminded me of Andrew Marvell's "The His Coy Mistress" -- probably the best and best known pick-up lines ever penned. As you all probably remember it begins:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime ...

And goes on for about 40 lines with serious persuasion she should not wait but throw herself into his eager arms.

A few years ago the coy mistress came to my attention again and, and, as I say, being somewhat jaded these days, I decided to write an answer to Andy in somewhat less  elegant couplets.

To my Over-eager Swain

Kind Sir, your elegant words do beguile
But yet, I beg you to hesitate a while
And consider, as I must, what I might lose
If headlong enrapturement, as you want, I choose.
If I am spendthrift and give my precious virginity in haste
All too soon my sylph-like figure would be laid waste.
I have weighed the risks and it is my perception
You will not and cannot protect me with contraception.
While you might incur a burden that is purely monetary
I've seen many childbirths lead to the mortuary.
If I had but safeguards and certainty
That matching lust with lust were safe for me
You'd find me the very opposite of coy,
I'd jump into bed with most any boy.

                          (heart above is a quilt block)