# Love Against Aggravation

Author: Rob MacWolf
Tags: Poetry, Virelai

I was challenged by

[@Corvid\_Conquest](/u/Corvid_Conquest)
 to write a Virelai, with the dual subjects "my love for my husband" and "a board game I played when I was a child."  
  
And I daresay I didn't do too badly.  
  
---  
  
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_What glorious loves does history display,_  
   _But greater still is trust.  
There's grander, more luxurious ways to play_  
   _But this will do for us._  
  
As once, within a earth-cool family room,  
I shepherded bright marbles through the gloom  
  Quite ignorant of all  
The ibis gambling days out of the moon,  
The kingdom-cheating princes and their doom,  
   The horses wondrous small,  
  
So do we sit now, in the cool of day,  
   Desire superfluous.  
I stroke your hair. Upon my breast you lay  
   Your forehead's weariness.  
  
_What glorious loves does history display,_  
   _But greater still is trust.  
There's grander, more luxurious ways to play_  
   _But this will do for us._  
  
Some have had gilded gameboards, jeweled pawns,  
Entire palaces with gracious lawns,  
   For passions as for games,  
But I'm content with years-worn cardboard, and  
The incidental brushes of your hand  
   When you my pieces claim.  
  
And aye, I have been wayward. I shall stray  
   Proudly promiscuous  
When you, asexual, comfort-craving, stay  
   Secure, somniferous.  
  
_What glorious loves does history display,_  
   _But greater still is trust.  
There's grander, more luxurious ways to play_  
   _But this will do for us._  
  
For you have had your journeys oft curtailed.  
You roll the dice. You find the dice have failed.  
   Desire begets frustration.  
And some have thought me no good match for thee,  
In board game as in sexuality,  
   A crass insinuation.  
  
But I'll hold aggravations well away,  
   However ludicrous.  
As little sorry may I need to say  
   As you have need of lust.  
  
_What glorious loves does history display,_  
   _But greater still is trust.  
There's grander, more luxurious ways to play_  
   _But this will do for us._  
  
I could make puns on Parcheesi all day...  
   But no more needless fuss.  
Call it storge,  
   Or agape,  
      Okay?  
   It's quite enough for us.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/7ej65BeW
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