It’s odd that we all thought it fine
to join two ear shapes and call them a sign
which we painted blood red,
stuck on cards which all read
“Won’t you please be my true Valentine?”
Yes, the colour is apt since the saint bled,
so – decapitated – quite dead;
being thus martyred
from his torso was parted
not a heart but a clerical head.
So surely instead of the heart
(shown pierced through by winged Cupid’s dart)
there should be a priest’s tonsure
atop a priest’s bonce, or
a head from its trunk kept apart?
Zenrinji 