To love a poet.

To love a poet

(Thanh nguyen 2019 )

I.

We are made of little things, promises we cannot keep.

the forgotten and the ignored.

 I am made of coffee and dog eared books that flap whenever you pass by.

You are made of nothing. Nothing at all, except dreams

I cannot chase.

But I see you, Galatea,

A pretty statue

overlooking the ocean.

I cannot help but fall in love,

for your smell of sea and earth,

Of blue hurricanes and fickle dust devils.

You must know 

I was raised a poet,

and hell is a place 

I often travel to.

Let me be Dante,

tired and starry- eyes,

gazing upon your gate.

II.

I drink coffee that taste 

like lingering cigarettes,

a sentimental sense

of late- night talks that go nowhere 

and friends that do.

I drink coffee 

that is as black as

the shades I wear indoors 

( it matches my dark mood that way)

I drink coffee 

because it’s easier 

to redefine love over caffeine than ethanol.

But coffee aside ( I know I’m an addict)

regard me as a simple fool:

a food without much to give 

and a heart that does not want 

much more than necessity,

perhaps only the words of a poet

too memorable to be penned,

too forgettable to think otherwise.

And you.

As far as necessities go,

coffee, poetry, and you.

III.

Hush now, will you ?

Take my silence and dance

to the ruffling of the nightingale’s feathers,

the  beating of our hearts ( oh how they bleed the rhythm of a poet’s words)

 under the flickering of a streetlamp

is where I’ ll kiss you,

so you’ll always remember 

that in the thumping cadence of a still, still night,

I love you 

with the strength 

of a thousand moons.

( Thanh Nguyên )

 

                   There's a battlescar on this heart
                    and it hurt to remember