TO FREUD

Dear Sigmund,

I am writing this letter to inform you

what women want is grammar.

Yes, women want grammar

more than anything else.

How could you not have known that?

Women want subjects

to help them, the reader, the rest of the world

to remember a last name that begins with a B,

possibly the name of a small Italian trattoria in Paris

located between a Boulevard and a Rue

only we would know how to find,

or that word I used to say repeatedly

convinced it was English,

but turned out to be Spanish…

Women want verbs to connect

the regular and irregular moments

that describe the last couple of years:

the first kiss you gave her and the last,

what she was thinking about, how she knows

your life wouldn't be the same without her.

Women want adjectives to attribute

the way they look in the morning,

the new hairdo, the smell of their perfume,

the time they take to get ready,

um… I mean, the time they invest

in always looking great for us,

or how your pulse drastically oscillates

each time she wears red lingerie to bed;

an Italian brand that begins with L pops to mind.

Sigmund, don't forget that women also want

possessive pronouns, adverbs, full stops,

exclamation marks, and evenings by candlelight

with a thesaurus, for starters,

a dictionary instead of a main course,

an encyclopedia for dessert

accompanied by a Massala that tastes

of how no one else in the world

could make you feel the same way she does.

Yes, what women want is grammar.

In sentences and, at times, in short phrases;

in brief paragraphs, and possibly, in whole chapters…

although what they really want out of grammar

is to hear it roll off a lover's lips

between a goodnight kiss and an I you love.