An Etude

Melancholia! and as if by magic

you are a boy

with greasy hay for hair and eyes like soft, saturated coffee grounds.

A pretty pair of burnt cheeks,

and lips plush and good, stuffed with song. They are

purses of genius. Do you see how life is like a leaf? Made just thus

 

that my eyes like two raindrops have to, must come to the tip?

Must look at you

and bead up in wet? You are a beautiful spice

from some other world. How righteously you believe love

is unreal, how righteously I would defend any nail

from your pudgy toes; how unfit for the other we are.

 

I am on fire, and you’d never play with matches. Yet,

only if you did

my clever, clever kid, what music, guitar strings like valley

after valley of flowers, you’d make.

Sometimes I think you’re an egg, and that I must hatch you,

but I never find myself any artifice to successfully warm you up.

 

My yeast, my yeast, you’ll never rise because of me. So now, my sluggish boy,

so-so now, my sleepy-eyed half-smiler, we dart away from t’other.

The nightly turns of your face in my sleep halt, and

burn through to black; I won’t see you. Why bother stoking

unanswerable fires.
I too can be sad and sensible.

 

I go into my hole for words and work,

and you do whatever it is you will, shimmering away.

The trembling summarizes: I think on you less, and less, and like

the farmer's son waving at the American leaving the peasant village, and I stand up singularly,

in a world you made seem backward and stupid,

hungering for your difference. But I can’t pronounce your name; I can’t call you back.

Reviews

[fireblossom]

Wow. You have a great instrument for poetry. Very well written. Very honest and open.

One night I saw a look of frustration on someones face. I was a teenager and he was a young man in his twenties. He tried to talk to me, but I was afraid because I didn't know myself well enough to open up. I doubted his intentions. Perhaps they weren't what I would have accepted, but I could have shown enough respect to find out. I learned from that encounter. Your poem reminded me of that night.

Thank you.

[misskara]

this is gorgeous. one of the poems i struggled with choosing for my top 5 in my little contest. its timeless - reading it one doesnt know if you are 14 years old or 40. your imagery is brilliant. i cant stop reading it. i cant stop sinking into it - it's priceless. ok - this will sound ridiculous, but every word is almost unnecessary, because i see it, and feel it, and smell the "spice". its untouchable. un-wordable - but you put it into words, and it moves me every time i read it. i cant wait to read more of you work. thank you.

[Silent Kim aka mizmetap..]

This had a very old world feel to it, a writer from the pass, lots of color and flare to your work.

Nice job

Thanks for entering my contest and the very best of luck to you.

[Hoshi Nami]

i enjoyed this becuase it's very different from most of the stuff i see on this sight- it felt very old fasioned to me, in a good way. the descriptions and adjectives you used were very original and new- and i had to really focus to see it all in my mind. i liked the general outcome, great work!

[[untitled]]

allusive and intelligent - your poetry was so chalked full of goodies that i can skip the midnight snack and go straight to bed. your avatar made me question but the fact of your writing sat me back down. way to reinforce the most popular cliche, you know book and cover.