K is for Keatsian Ode
Iambic pentameter, ababcdecde rhyme scheme x 3 verses. boo.
In my mind I braid your hair, fingers part
Your waves like seas, and I’ve become Noah.
This is, of course, how the delusions start,
Exploring your parts, a tender Jonah
I try to find my way in, never out
All of my fingers weaving your soft hair
middle and forefinger robotically working
And I savor your full waves in my draught
Of real connection, with you unaware,
A moment stolen while you weren’t looking.
I tack each of your letters upon the wall,
And I read and re-read your easy hand.
Your honest words hit me soft like rainfall
On the ocean of the water-wasteland
Of my mind. You come quick into me, but
As we’re consumed into each other I
Still beg that we might be closer, all wet
All skin on skin, so close, but we are not
The same, and lonely in a sea of you, I cry.
We hardly even know each other yet.
So this is all that I have to offer,
A frightened love, affection, and nightmares,
What a pathetic ode to a lover
Who, so quiet in her devotion, bears
The ceaseless strain of my (self) interest
And, as if emerging from the sea, she,
Bare, offers me her everything. Faults, and
Beauty all the same, ashamed but undressed
Why would she give all of her grace to me?
Thankful but damaged, I won’t understand.