Poetry Surrounded Me
A poem by Julia R. DeStefano
Seems like a long time nothing much rang true. But I feel like something could happen. I feel like something could happen with you. ~Tom Petty, “Something Could Happen”
Poetry Surrounded Me
I was wrapped in white and blue.
A thin tie to twice-enclose
my little waist
and the secrets kept there.
A tortoise shell clip securing my titian locks.
My favorite platforms.
You wore wildness on your sleeve like your heart.
Filling in the blanks.
Not wanting to die full of questions.
Soaking up the elixir of my love.
And I could have called you “honey”
but went for “my boy”
because it made you mine
at the table, in the car, on the steps of the mudroom.
At a rose-tinted movie.
Because love was an action word
that meant something
as Poetry surrounded me.
Cheering us on.
Until you left when you wanted to stay,
and behind my smile
was a flood of tears I didn’t let you see.
Poetry, as confused as I, put its hand on my shoulder.
But I felt so alone like I’d lost a part of me.
Where are you, that man who loved me -
this soul that mirrors mine?
He whose heart sings the same song,
where now there is only static?
Not with me on Valentine’s Day or vacation,
when you should be kissing away
time wasted and lost
to the choir of our heartbeats.
Keeping me close,
instead of displaying affections like moon phases.
Listen to the truth as you do the music.
A frequency of love not fear.
We never know
that what we have is wrong
until we have what’s right
as God sends from above -
an angel we need.
An angel that we love.
© Julia R. DeStefano
