a gift

a gift

 

couldn’t afford to buy her a gift so I

filled a mason jar with rain,

dropped in the petals of the reddest rose,

mashed up some pine needles

and sprinkled them in,

searched for five hours

for the most perfect clover

and sunk it into the mix.

 

it smelled like an earthier Heaven,

or maybe, a more heavenly earth.

 

the child in my soul danced and giggled.

he knew she’d adore the scent.

 

the day came:

 

she did not understand my gift.

she does not understand me.

many times,

her eyes have whispered insults

as her mouth has professed love.

 

I don’t know how to tell her,

either,

that this gold bracelet she bought me

is cold on my skin,

as dead as our passion

and smells like a metallic warning

 

that we’re running fast

into a wildfire.

Reviews

[Monday Parker]

I love the naturalistic romantic idea of this poem. The insight and imagery. I have been reading some of your work-they are all really good...but this one caught me and held all the way to the last line-Which to me is the most powerful

"that we’re running fast
into a wildfire."

Great job!

[Truly Ross-Wisehart]

Many women would have understood and welcomed such a romantic gift. Sadly, she was not one of them. Her loss...I think. Well written and deeply touching to this reader.

~Tru

[Penny Ellen]

Deep breath.

I truly feel like crying after that. having been on both sides of the fence, I know what it is like to be confused and to be the misunderstood halves of a doomed union.

I once made a picture book (and I mean professional-grade, through an independant publisher) describing how I met my at-the-time boyfriend for Christmas. I took weeks thinking up the concept and days putting it together, getting the words and pictures JUST RIGHT. All the while, feeling giddy and childish knowing that he'd love it. He didn't even read it until after we broke up. Then, tried to use some of the words as a pawn to get me back after all the hell I'd gone through for him.

Love?

Never what you think.

Never.

[Emily B]

crowley's review brought me running

I knew this was exactly the kind of poetry I wanted to read today

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

I understand this so well~ so intimately~ no onyx credit card slid across a table~ or Prada bag~ or Benz will ever equal our young days of heart gifts when 'he' caught fireflies for me and strung them round my wrist in a celestial bracelet~

[Crowley]

Just empty the mason jar back up fill it with moonshine and lets talk s**t about our ex's....this was a fine example of writing down the bones of a real existence and the trouble with love. I wonder how many real matches are out there for each of us.....no telling, but if we found one, and we really believed it was perfect, imagine what we could do with that.

[koty bell]

wow great poem, went from happy to nervous to sad, when a poem does that you know it's great.