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KNOT Magazine
Fall Issue 2022
Lisa Ratnavira
I Love Women. . .
I love women who write letters in cursive
I love women who wash their aluminum foil
I love women who plant spoiled tomatoes and sprouting potatoes
who darn socks
and collect rocks
I love women who write lists
and make gift tags out of cards
I love women who use their soda can topper to hang art
and repurpose cereal boxes
mailing articles and comics to loved ones
I love women who keep gratitude journals, jars, trees
and plant flowers simply for the sake of beauty
I love women who gather herbs
make potpourri
I love women who visit and decorate their loved ones gravesites
who take pictures and attempt scrapbooks
Women who journal about their babies, their pregnancies, their college romances
I love women who save the letters their grandparents wrote
who insist you have seconds or have offended their ability to cook
I love women that hang their clothes out to dry
who sanctify their homes by cherishing all those who live within its walls
I love women who drink and swear and laugh all their makeup off
and yet still have a glimmer of lust at the young boy loading their groceries
Women who ask why certain designs were chosen when looking at a tattoo
I love women who savor beauty even when it has passed over them
I love women who feed birds
and read voraciously; having new ideas to discuss with younger generations
I love women who hold traditions and celebrations for their family
and plan their lives to include others
I love women who run cottage industries
trying to dance in both worlds, accepting neither will be newsworthy
I love women who cut their shampoo bottles to get the very last drop
Who save all their money and then splurge on a trip around the world
I love women who send birthday cards.
II
The way I love men who use their children’s baby jars to organize their screws
who paint their own fences
wash their own cars and change their own oil
and barbeque taking time to let the doggie have a small taste
or any children near by
I love men who wake up early
I love men who whistle
and men with strong hands
Capable of bringing flowers, and changing diapers
I love men who cry when their trees are pruned too drastically
I love men who give nicknames
and dance and flirt when they’ve had one too many
I love men who lead a lady across the dance floor without a trace of regret
I love men who admit they’ve made mistakes
and have the capacity to laugh uproariously
I love men with dimpled chins and boyish charms
who still want to catch lizards and frogs and put them in their pockets
I love men who work all their lives to make sure their families don’t have to
I love men who tend fires
who fix things rather than throw them out and buy another
I love men who value a home-cooked meal and a warm clean bed
falling in love with their wives all over again through their children and grandkids
I love men who talk to their animals
and the confidence in a man’s walk and the twinkle in his eye
when he knows he is right
I love the agony with which a man gives away his daughter
and the triumph in the way he holds his first grandchild
I love the way men brush their fingers against a woman’s hair in appreciation.
III
The way I love partners that lean into one another
waiting patiently for a degree to be attained, a child to be adopted
making pancakes at midnight for a hungry lover
I love partners who take pride in their home together
loving their pets, showering them with tenderness
outlasting many of their traditional friends’ marriages with perseverance
partners who refuse to define love as monogamous, nor monotonous
seeing one another to the very end of this journey.
IV
The way I love people who take time to cherish this life
so fleeting so fragile and to leave kindness in its wake
who dig in for the next round
preparing to live a little longer than hoped for
And to leave something of substance behind.
![Lisa Ratnavira.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cac361_0db5033dbde0409cb7d66fabb2ec26e2~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_143,h_143,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Lisa%20Ratnavira.jpg)
Lisa Ratnavira resides in Fallbrook, CA with her husband, wildlife artist, Gamini Ratnavira. Their art and poetry connect in her books: Maiden, Mother & Crone (written with Rae Rose and Penny Perry), Traveling with Pen and Brush, and Grief’s Labyrinth and other Poems (Garden Oak Press), available online at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
Lisa is a regular contributor to the San Diego Poetry Annual and holds an MA from Concordia University in Irvine, Ca. She has traveled to more than16 countries, including Singapore, Sri Lanka, England, Africa, Bermuda, Bahamas, Bali, Trinidad, Panama, Costa Rica, Spain, Canary Islands, the Maldives, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and throughout the USA. Her sons Beau and Brooks reside in Japan and Fallbrook, respectively.
Her daughter, Natalie, is free from an earthly address. She often visits in the form of a dragonfly.