POETRY

Half-Hearted

A misshapen love poem

​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​​​I want to write a love poem ​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​ ​​​ to share with my beloved, to pour my ​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​​heart out on to pieces of paper, stain the white in crimson ink, Barely able to bear the beating drum behind the brittle bones of my ribs, but the words ring hollow, not enough to say what I truly mean, half-hearted words spew from hungry lips, starving for the kisses I miss, I love you seemed bland, overused, and abused by many men, I will say it my own way, weave together hopes and dreams, Along with old memories, the precious moments we spent, We were like awkward children, innocent but corrupted. Remember our first date, when we split the bill in two? I, the man, deemed to pay, but you said fu** the rule, I loved you before, but your gesture threw my heart halfway past the moon, we both met in the middle, The stingy boy, a classy girl, a romcom re-written for the modern age, men and women are equal, We finished our script, began filming sequels, Going Dutch 8, coming to a theater near you, From movie dates, video calls, love letters, You are the 30 minutes of my every hour, Giving me your time to spend together, Like the 50 cents of every dollar we save to build our dream together, for us two, and the pitter-patter of little feet, stinky nappies, and sleepless nights, I’m scared and excited, we are in this together, I know that you, Will always be the other half of Me

For those who are not on the desktop and wondering what is this garbled mess, it was formatted to look like the photo below.

A Few Words Before I Go

This strange set of words came to be through a desire to write a love poem for my girlfriend. I wanted to get fancy and make it shaped like half a heart, then get her to write a poem that mirrored it so we could say our poems made love together! (Get it 😋). Unfortunately, while trying it out, I discovered three very important things about myself.

1. I suck at writing romantic poems.
2. I am not much of a designer since the heart turned out a bit too tall and chubby.
3. I am very good at convincing myself that my mistakes were actually cleverly veiled sparks of brilliance. You see, the misshapen heart looks tall and chubby because I too am tall and chubby. See the connection?

Anyway, she enjoyed it, and with her permission, I wanted to publish it on Medium so people can enjoy it too and have a laugh at how much of a try-hard I can be.

Hope you like it.

If want to read another poem that I tried to shape into another lover of mine called chicken, check it out below.

Oh, and I want to shout out Amy Pierovich for sharing the formatting technique I used in the poem. She is an amazing poet and her words take me to exquisite places from midnight stargazing to beautiful blue mountains. Please enjoy one of her latest.

Thank you for reading and have a great day!