Guest Poem: Figures

Figures

I could never fully see you
like a tree in the fog
waiting to be discovered
I can see the shape
but the image lacks content
You’re still waiting
after all this time
after years

you never wanted me to know you
to see the burden that fear and regret
had taken on your stature
a slight slouch
the weight you bore on your shoulders
hanging
to pull down the outer corners of your eyes

I wanted, just once to know your thoughts
to see how you see me
how you loved me
if you loved me
if you loved me

you’re as private as a bird in a cage under a curtain
I can hear you but I don’t know if the song comes from your heart
you keep the world at arm’s length
and hope that if you make a joke of everything then nothing can hurt you

I only wanted to love you
for you to trust me
to become your confidant
to know you
to feel your soul’s desires
and to see you
when that fog finally lifted

For links to poetry prompts, or if you missed out on what I’m doing for National Poetry Month, check out the first post here.

You can also find all the poems that have been posted so far here.

To end each post, there will be this call to share your own work. Whether it’s something that you write as soon as you finish reading this post, or it’s a poem you’ve posted or had published, place the whole poem in the comments or put a link to it. A brief description before the link will help me process comments faster, so I know they’re not spam.

Also, feel free to share links to poems or spoken word performances by other poets. I hope this month will bring a wide variety of poetry to everyone’s attention. Also, there will be posts on my author Facebook page, a link to which can be found on the right-hand side, that will include spoken word performances and links to work of other poets, which will not appear here.