There is No Commandment to Love
(for Alan and Paul)

We stagger beneath these stones 
twice-carved into a covenant 
of obligation. We will never know 
what tenderness was lost to fury 

at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Only Moses 
spoke mouth to mouth with God. We gnaw 
at the bones of their ancient argument, 
swallow stern words transcribed 

by human hands. If we could repair 
what was broken, there would be gentle 
promises instead of recriminations. And no fear 
to seal flesh to flesh in the sacrament of devotion.