Valentine's Day...

It is hardly a thing of surprise these days,

To watch facts and figures be altered.

When every bit of information we hear,

To serve some agenda, has been blurred.

What we know are largely lies,

The things we think we do, mistakes.

For each speck of the news that reaches us,

Are perversities of the truth, all fakes….

If our recent events are thus hidden,

Would it shock you if I were to say…

Even this myth that so warms you heart,

Is a fabrication… this legend of Valentine’s Day.

Most of us know nothing at all,

Neither the assumed history… nor the truth…

For them I have nothing further to say,

Since they don’t know the lies, what use is sooth.

Saint Valentine was a real person,

Of that much the records are certain,

He indeed lived in a troubled Rome,

This too being accounted for… is a given.

From here on the legends take different routes,

One stays with facts, noted and preserved.

The other… more popular and recent idea,

Being more romanticized is widely heard.

The falsehood claims that the pious priest,

To preserve the love we held within,

Married young people in secret,

Uncaring, of the cruel emperor’s chagrin.

He is said to have been executed for this,

Punished for defying the law of the state,

And since he healed his jailor’s daughter before dying,

He is supposed to have been accorded the status of saint.

Ironically this beautiful piece of myth,

Although said to have occurred in ancient Rome,

Was never mentioned in any scrap of history,

Until over a millennium later… in a romantic poet’s home

The only account that stayed consistent,

From the time of the events in question,

Sheds a different light on the whole affair,

Making it quite a lot more mundane…

Valentine the catholic priest, it says

Was brought before the emperor,

He was asked to change his faith, by him

His denial would lead to death… or pain severe.

The priest tried to do something unheard of,

He attempted to change the emperor’s belief!

Of course for doing this he was sentenced to death,

Causing his tale to be simple and brief.

Such a vast difference between the truth and myths

As always is the case.

Yet the myths are more easily remembered,

While the truth hides in a maze.

Feel free to delude yourself,

And claim that this day is of romance.

Believe, if you want, that the legend is of love,

And religious bigotry is of no essence.

I myself am just a sour teenager,

Not looking for beauty in things I hear.

I merely try to find out the truth of matters,

And spread what I find to those near.

So it is up to you to decide again,

Think about it over your wine…

Which legend do you think is true,

About the reality of St. Valentine.