Poems about Love and the Lack Thereof

2022 Barrett Winner

3rd Place Alayna Will

Poems about Love and the Lack Thereof
Babe
I’m falling for you
Like a narcoleptic
Down a flight of stairs
Like a dog seizing
From too many stab wounds
I froth at the mouth and quake
Only for your lovin’s sake

Shoot me up one last time
Tap the twisted vein
That starts at my heart
And drowns my bleedin’ brain

Enough of those stupid romance words
You stole from a dime store shelf
Love me in sum
And save up your ten cent plagiarisms
For my downpour

I dig out the marrow
Dip my brush
And Bob Ross your portrait
With my ache
And oh-for-god’s sake
Don’t break your own bones
To fix mine

The Entomologist
1.
He pinned me down
Like a butterfly
On a corkboard
And ripped off
My
Wings
2.
An entomologist's kiss
Sent me into a raging flutter
Torn from
My flower
I threw myself
Against the mirror
As if it was a pane of glass
An
Openable
Window
3.
That summer flew by
Without me
Flightless
I withered under
Thick heat
You found me
On the asphalt dying
Still
Dancing
In
His
Web

My Body Contorts
My body contorts –
I think athwart.
My body stands tall –
I think till I gall.

My mind must have one state –
my body opposing;
the two have no fate
of their forms interposing.

Suppose they decided
to meet at the heart,
only to be divided –
it would rip me apart.

So be blessing or curse,
each one must be cast -
lest I be amerced,
mind and body must contrast.

Our Love in the Key of G Minor
G minor
Yes we were
HARMONIC
Passing a fifth between us
Only intoxicated were we ever
In unison

I hit the F sharp
The tension tastes
Like oranges
I see two American Spirits
Laid out on the coffee table
And the hair on the back of my neck
Is raised

I skip to A
The first day, I mean
Was short of minor
Let my "sad eye"
Drift back to recall
How the seconds
Diminished

“B flat,”
I begged of myself
As if the flattening of my roots
Wouldn’t further augment
The arguments
I believed that the third time
Was the charm
That you could change
Like I had
For you

On to D
D for “dominance”
You needed total control
Suggesting you were
Major to any potential I had
Wrote a contract
But I knew
It was a deal with
The Devil

E flat reminds me
Of times of triumph
Because despite the depths
The darkness
There was endless desire
Desire to prove
That we could be happy
I tried to meet you in the middle
But always ended up
Submediant

Let’s end on C
See, I was a minor
Not even sixteen
Before you
Sir twenty-two
Set your sights
On me
So ensnared in a sick tango
For two
Submissive and sweet