it's not jealousy you should fear.

The last word was 'edge' but I felt that edge when it began as something round. Maybe the title told me it was coming. Powerful stuff. Penetrative. Almost erotically scary, in a good way.

Before I comment on this poem let me take one moment (or a

paragraph) for another purpose. It has long been overdue for me to express my apologies for my overly harsh and inappropriate overall tone I used in my comments to your poem: “mathematic variations with cat”. There are always ways to express even the most critical thoughts in a civil way, and I crossed the line there. It does not matter why it happened to me. The point is that I should have been more vigilant. I will try to do a better job. Thanks for many wonderful poems, and I promise that even if something upsets me in the future, I will express it respectfully.

Matters of the heart; is there anything else?

I have two main comments on this wonderful poem.

First it’s wonderful despite the fact that in my mind it’s not perfect.

I remember having a similar problem with your tendency to bring into one poem too many materials which weaken (again –IMO) rather than strengthen the whole. For me the last two stanzas would have made a better poem than the same with the first stanza.

The second point: I feel that when you let one image develop more smoothly and with more input of emotions the out put which comes to the reader is superb!. No question, the intellect is always there. But it does not seem to be so calculated. Take the imagery of the Rounded jealousy (and the Polygons) in the last two stanzas. It is both cohesive in terms of the core imagery, and it alludes to several physical sensory and emotional attributes at the same time. You can see and feel the image of the roundness through a kiss; not just any kiss of course but the one which is meant to hurt (you can see and taste the blood. And the best of it – “the reality” of it is negated as in modern art where ‘almost’ erased objects still plant the images in your mind. “…kisses left unkissed”, but in our minds the image of the yearned kiss is already there.

Then paradoxically the love of the implied narrator seems to be what “intuitively” most would pick as the “most appropriate” image for…jealousy: a column of “razor sharp edges”, even if it’s just a polygon (did she see it in the last corporate review?).

Putting together what on the surface seems to be “unintuitive imagery” brings most satisfying realizations.

First, both jealousy and love may have more in common than what seems initially as a pair of two opposites. Jealousy contains the yearning for lost or unreturned love. And love’s inherent vulnerability can turn into a protective shield ready to defend/ attack (not unlike jealousy) in case of unforeseen threat to hurt or to the heart.

What I love most is the underlying exposure of the personal vulnerability; the hidden confession of one’s fear of being hurt even under the shield of razor sharp...Polygons you said?

An image of jealousy in a new light,

Of a softer thing against the biting feel of love's driving passion.