Italics are Trustworthy

Take this coming second line seriously:

This is not a poem of love, or a sonnet;

it’s not an ode.

We’re teenagers and we know

The things people remember through a cloud �"

Don’t we?

 

 This is a recognition of the fact that

(Yesterday)

When I was filming you playing squash, you looked up at me,

Me on the balcony �" that’s symbolism, isn’t it?

-  And you smiled an innocent and lovely smile,

But I responded too late.

I meant the smile that I didn’t.

 

(You threw your jumper up and I dropped the list down.

I think that’s symbolism too.)

And take the following line very seriously:

I meant to smile.

This isn’t a poem of love: tentative; passionate; or otherwise: All I want to say is that you smiled

Like one who had cause to smile.

And me, I also have cause to smile (because of you).

Reviews

[Lexi Richard]

Love this, it seems very effortlessly well written. Nice work!