Love rode 1500 miles on a grey

Love rode 1500 miles on a grey
hound bus & climbed in my window
one night to surprise
both of us.
the pleasure of that sleepy
shock has lasted a decade
now or more because she is
always still doing it and I am
always still pleased. I do indeed like
aggressive women
who come half a continent
just for me; I am not saying that patience
is virtuous, Love
like anybody else, comes to those who
wait actively
& leave their windows open.

Judy Grahn is a well-known feminist poet and cultural theorist. Her accessible, short poems are collected in love belongs to those who do the feeling, from Red Hen Press in Los Angeles. The book won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry in 2008. Judy Grahn’s memoir, A Simple Revolution, was published by Aunt Lute Press. Grahn co-directs the Women’s Spirituality master’s program at Sofia University in Palo Alto. She currently serves as associate core faculty for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, in their Women’s Spirituality master’s program. The poem is reprinted by permission.