News For You
I’ve got news for you
just because you want someone doesn’t mean it will work.
Just because they are romantic beyond belief
more romantic than you ever dreamed possible
here’s the news—
it might not mean a thing.
After a first date full of promise, full of joy
he seeds the ground with phone calls and
writes you poems while you are sleeping and
texts them daily to your phone
straight from his heart
ardent, passionate, full of longing.
I’ve got news for you
once you say to this someone
I’ve seen you twice— this is crazy!
I want regular dates
he retreats into to his head,
to his circling thoughts
to his extreme fear that
he won’t live up to the promise of those poems
that he can’t
that he will screw it up completely.
This he knows without even trying.
I want to hold your hand,
to share that news with you gently.
Still—in my heart I feel that
if you had read closely enough
if you finished the last inch of print on the very last page
you might have sensed something
as your thumbs smudged the columns of letters
you might have felt regret
as you washed the ink from your fingers
you might have wondered why
the smears lingered why
it was such a challenge to scrub them off.
You rarely read the news
he reads it every day.
Perhaps now is a good time to start.