Saturday, April 18, 2015

Day 15-ish: Love Letter from a Kept Man

Poem:

Love Letter from a Kept Man

I tell you I can live without you,
and one morning even tried—

but stumbled bleary-eye,
watched a world fast-forward,
 
launch free through open air
while I sludged through the Sargasso.

I fought through fog
thick as the pillow I still craved;

voices wrapped in white noise
called as from miles away;

and through the haze
your siren call beckoned.

I turned to you again,
breathed in your strength,

absorbed your heat in my hands,
tasted you on my lips,

felt your life flow through me
and woke to the day.

Commentary:

This poem plays on the concept of a love letter, in this case not to a person but to morning coffee.  I chose language to mimic the angst and yearning we often see in love poetry, and sought to build in the sensual experience of consuming that first cup.

I chose couplets in this poem to reflect the feel of a morning before coffee, a jagged experience that moves from moment to moment before caffeinated coherence arrives.  The mythic imagery is meant to accentuate a state between dreaming and waking while I lurch into the day.

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