Relationships Poetry Collection

Daughter - Mother 

(for my mum when she was my age)

There's single fading photo,
Of you at sixteen. Your future awaits,
Bright young eyes, pearly white smile
Standing amongst three rows of eight.

With a smart black dress and gown,
And of course gran's high heeled shoes,
You beam on blankly with eager excitement
What could you have to lose?

An air of youth and promise,
Accomplishment, spotaneity and hope,
Your only worries parents and pimples,
An acceptance letter in hand.

The prospect of the future,
Where the sky is forever blue,
You've not thought about me yet,
If only, if only you knew.

Frozen in a moment, optimistic, naïve,
Still with an undecided fate,
Your arm is around a girl,

Whose name you can't recall,

All you know is that you two were
The class of seventy-eight.

*****

Stranger -Stranger

(for the cute café guy)

I’ve become obsessed with you, a stranger.
The wanderings of my mind,
Can’t seem to find a better time,
I chose to shift my heart into the danger,
With the subtle deprivation,
Of my ever-growing fixation.

Because the truth is that we’ve barely met,
But the warmth of your smile,
The likes of which I’ve not seen in a while,
Have ensnared me into your net,
And now my heart is lost and broken,
For a soul to whom I’ve barely spoken.

'Cause from the moment that I saw you,
My focus shifted and set,
On the need to be adored by you,
That I can only pray to forget,
Because our lives will never intersect,
Doubt I’ll ever see you again,
But I cannot seem to disconnect,
From this need to be deemed a friend.

My mind won’t cease the wondering,
Of what could be between us,
An incessant aching pondering,
If you looked at me and saw ‘us’
My days and nights are restless,
With this feeling I wish I could change,
But that’s what happens when you fall in love,
With someone when you don't even know their name.

****

Girl - Ex Boyfriend

(for the guy who kept me waiting)

Everyone stares at you
As they walk past, wondering
Why it is that you’re sitting on your own.
It’s already late.
You can see people you know walking
Toward you and you sigh.
They’re either going to walk straight past-
Pretend that they haven’t seen you, or,
They're going to stop. Ask you what’s wrong.
Why you’re on your own.
Why you look like you’re about to cry.
You don’t know
Which would be worse.
Being ignored or being acknowledged.


Everybody stares.
Granted, some of them are less
Obvious than others, but they still do it.
You wish you’d brought something.
If you’d brought a book,
Even a pen and some paper,
You wouldn’t look quite so obvious.
You could be in the park for,
Some other, meaningless task aside from
Waiting.


It’s worse.
His best friend
And her girlfriend walk past.
You drop your head.
Pray to God that they won’t
Say anything. They don’t.
They pass silently.
You thought that was what you had wanted,
But in fact, it just makes a tear fall.
They didn’t say anything because they know.
They know why you’re here,
They know why you are waiting.



And still, the people stare.
A man slows. He stops. You panic
Wonder if he’s going to ask you
If you’re okay. He doesn’t.
He asks for
Directions.
You answer, but your voice is embarrassingly
Strained.
He begins to leave but stumbles, then
Goes to say something else but falters.
He quickly covers it up by asking
If you are from around here.
You clear your throat and answer.
He looks a little more comfortable,
Smiles, thanks and leaves.


You notice a tiny pin-sized spider
Crawling across your hand.
You watch him as he navigates his way
Across the vast expanse of your skin,
Dancing across your fingers
Tackling the forest of arm hair.
Eventually he casts a web, and gets
Carried off by the breeze.
You’re left, again, alone.
You look up briefly to check,
Only to be faced by his tempestuous
Ex-girlfriend
And new boyfriend as they pass.
It’s just getting worse.
It’s as though the powers that be, are doing
Everything possible to make this that much harder for you.


You check the time.
You’ve been sitting on this bench
Forty minutes. It doesn’t even seem that long.
You could sit here for hours,
But you know you won’t. Even if you could,
The endless stream of painfully familiar faces
Would get to you before long. You glance up,
And for a second, you think you see his face. You start,
But quickly realise that it isn’t him at all.
You drop your head back down to your hands.
Wishing the spider was back.



You’re hungry.
You’re tempted to get something to eat but,
You'll only leave it untouched.
Besides, you daren’t leave in case
In your momentary absence, he arrives.
Coincidence is already doing its best to destroy you, after all.


Someone passes you with a cigarette.
Usually you’d resent the smell, but not now.
Not today.
Today you resent it for an entirely different reason.
You close your eyes, trying to cease the stream of memories.
You open your eyes to find a solitary pigeon pottering around your ankles,
Pecking aimlessly at the concrete. You could probably pick it up if you tried.
You are considering what you’d do with this pigeon once you picked it up,
But a large group of boys pass. The nearest one says
Something disgusting to you as they laugh and nudge each other.


The only indication more obvious
In the transition from day to night,
aside from the light, is the company you attract.
It’s been an hour.
Fighting the urge to weep, you get to your feet, finally
Coming to terms with the fact
That you’d known right from the beginning.


Perhaps he’s not coming after all.

****

Girl - Boy In Love

(for the boy she left heart broken)

She's a vulture, she's a fox,
She'll pray when you’re weak,
She’ll make you feel good,
When your future looks bleak.

She’ll play the part well,
You'll feel sorry for her,
She’ll make you see things,
I could never make you see.

Salome, a succubus,
She’ll slowly draw you closer,
You’ll find yourself warm to her,
And become colder with me.

Then finally you manage it,
You realise how much you care,
You pluck up the courage and end it,
And turn around, but she's not there.

Now that you’re single its gone,
A fish that’s got her bait,
The thrill of the pursuing an unreachable goal
Is gone, when you’re there on a plate.

So she’ll move on and she'll seek a new target,
She’ll leave you in her wake,
She’ll make you fall head over heels,
And then your heart she’ll break.

***

Girl - Future Boys

(for the boy looking my way)

On the surface, I wish for
Romantic delusions of hopelessness.
In one hand flowers, the other in mine,
The epitome of loving selflessness.
But always I fall into the stereotype trap,
Crushing, wanting, falling, needing.
I don't really want to be equal and happy,
I just want a love that's bleeding.


I want to feel the danger
The rushing thrill of risk,
Dark hair, dark eyes, raised eyebrow smile,
Are the ones I always seems to pick.
I don't want safety, but a passionate affair.
That blonde over there,
He's the love I should want:
The love I'd marry young, then
Never look back.

Romantic poems, walks on the beach,

It's enough to make me sleepy.

A distant reminder of the dim light

Under which bedtime stories were read,

Prince charming and the like.

Don't get me wrong, it's what I'm about,

But I'd rather a passionate longing, temptation,

Caught in a moment of youthful lust,

Even if I'm left broken and abandoned,

Listing types of boys I cannot trust.

***

The End. Hope you enjoyed!