Michael Simms: The Chemistry of Love

I’m told psychiatrists don’t bother anymore
            With talking or listening to
            Clients because
Truth can be found in the soup
            Of chemicals in the brain
            And feelings are merely
Synapses lighting up after
            The sudden release of
            All that dopamine 
Which can make us crazy if we’re
            Not careful and my
            Love for you is merely 
Partner preference determined 
            By oxytocin and 
            Dopamine dancing
In the hallways of attachment
            Behaviors and I imagine
            It’s a tango they’re doing
While vasopressin in the ventral 
            Pallidum mediates our 
            partnership and my
Fascination with that small place
            Where your butt curves 
            And forms your back
Is modulated in the nucleus accumbens 
            While the stirring I feel 
            When you catch my glance
And look down and slowly raise 
            Your gaze to meet mine 
            Shows only my high levels
Of cortisol and not anything
            Specifically metaphysical.

Copyright 2020 Michael Simms

Michael Simms is the founding editor of Vox Populi, Autumn House Press, and Coal Hill Review.