The Last Love Song Ever Written

I had this long blog here that I wrote and re-wrote 3 times until I finally deleted it because I just couldn’t get the words right. So, instead of forcing it, I’ve decided to give you a poem that I included in my little chapbook. I hope you enjoy. And if you are local, there are two open mics this week that I will be reading at (I think). Facebook me and I’ll let you know when and where…

The Last Love Song Ever Written

 

I remember the first time my heart was broken

And the second

And the third

By the time I got to ten

I just stopped counting and expected it

 

The way you expect rain in April and the leaves to fall in October

So I started treating love

like parsley on a fancy dinner plate

It wasn’t something I needed

And I was more than happy to leave it

to be scraped into the trash

 

And then I met him

he was cool rain on the hot pavement in July

He was the sunroof open with the heat on in the winter

He was salt and coconut oil wafting through the air on the beach

And it was just easy

Like a test I had been studying for

my whole life and I knew all the answers to it

 

Until I didn’t.

 

Until I realized that what I wanted most

was also what I most feared.  

 

So when I found him

looking like every dream

i never dared to have

 

I doubted everything

I doubted him

I doubted his words

I doubted that summer would even be back in June

 

Had I known I would be so scared

I would have been more careful what I wished for

Or I would have chosen to overlook him

 

If he hadn’t felt like hot cocoa with extra marshmallows falling

over the side of my oversized mug at Christmas

If he didn’t smell like a freshly lit campfire that I wanted to sit with

all night long to keep warm

If he wasn’t my favorite late night radio talk show when I couldn’t sleep

I would have been able to not love him.

 

But I was helpless because he felt like home

He felt like hands in the wet dirt of a spring garden
He felt like family dinners and sunday drives

He felt like my favorite book on a rainy day

 

And when he smiled at me with the face of happily ever after

I wanted to memorize him like the last love song ever written