Dear Jackie

Dear Jackie

A Poem by Seri Valentino

Dear Jackie 

 

I

I want to draw a big, solid J and stretch the ends into a thousand branches       

like blankets, to cocoon you against the cold.

 

I don’t know how to write�"or really think�"about love that’s not dripping                                         like tears from cracks in a beating, bleeding heart,

turning to stone in my toes

screams in my mouth.

 

I do know:

I like the ways your hair swings like a gentle waterfall in the morning.  

I like the way my head buzzes for your face and taste, your gentle hands on my fidgeting hips, 

Lips. 

 

I like that if I looked back to right now, I wouldn't say I already knew

I'd walk away waiting 

A fleeting smile plaguing my mind 

Teasing the daily grind 

 

II

You are like a current

flowing with something lighter than water

more warming and cooling

more comforting and exciting

sparkling: you would be swimming from the tips of my toes, up through my nose,

down the backs of my ears and shoulders, tracing the outlines of my chest                                 forming whirlpools where those buds soar into your wind

 

you are an undercurrent up to my chest and down again

waves crash in the valley below my bellybutton

up, it sways, trying to find you.

You magnetize my senses

pulling with your voice and hands

your breath and the smell of your neck and hair.

 

When you leave my head is an eddy still swirling from flying with your storm

 

 

If you were a stream

 I could play forever in the deep swirls I have found, warming me

I want you to stay here, this gorgeous, swirling mass, glittering and changing colors when rays of sunlight bounce off of you.

I love how you ripple when the wind blows

I love the feel of my hand floating on the surface

below, my feet beckoning

toes digging into sand and seaweed, nervous and excited for the rocks they find.

 

III

Water ripples and moves as one

Though separate currents run through and around each other

some are warm

some are cold

some have traveled through death (the fallen body of a mother deer)

some carry coffins: leaves and bug’s wings that have finished flying through this life, done flirting with the spray.

Now they rest on your back and travel down, out to sea where all meet.

 

Some sing of life: they have seen new fish faces hatch from eggs hiding in secret rock beds

Some are brand new.

 

I hope your currents can take my tears in stride with kisses

 

IV

When I found myself here I wanted to stay and look around

I started to swim when the sun got hot, and stayed to drink when I was thirsty

You started to dance around me,

I smiled when our hands clasped.

 

I want to draw circles with my toes in the mud below

To find the rocks hidden under years of silt and clay, fossils telling of you.

I want to make friends with the fishes peeking out from narrow stone corridors.

 

 

V

Your legs are like warm boulders I can climb up

to your arms, sturdy branches that bend to hold me so I can look up

where leaves blow in the wind and kiss my cheeks and brows and lips.

 

If you were a tree

 I would climb your branches and explore your knots,

‘till I fell asleep in a bird’s nest you made me.

            I would brush your leaves of dust and pick your flowers

            line your trunk and write your name, so

all around would know

From birds and bees and bugs below

Through a thousand wings your song would ring.

© 2015 Seri Valentino


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Added on January 18, 2015
Last Updated on January 18, 2015

Author

Seri Valentino
Seri Valentino

Amhetst, MA



About
setting up and finding my way around the cafe. more..

Writing