Bottled Ships

Valentine’s Day in Amsterdam

27 Mar 2010 1 Comment

by Salma in Poetry Tags: life, love, Poetry, video entry

I spent two days working on this poem. Let me know what you think. =)

Please don’t mind the helicopter in the background. It’s the fan inside my laptop. i haven’t figured out what to do about that yet.

Valentine’s Day in Amsterdam

We were on the bus back from Amsterdam:
City of bicycles and coffee shops;
Where, by night, a man is akin to a
Window shopper, and the woman is the
Mannequin, selling not her clothes but what’s
Underneath. And the man pays for love he
Can’t get for free from human connection.

We were on a bus of college students
Studying abroad in the not so well-
Known country of Wales, talking about how,
When we tell people where we are, they say,
“Oh, you mean England?”

Then the dialogue
Veered into the familiar neighborhood
Of the one thing we want to accomplish
Before we kiss our lives goodbye and with
A satisfied smile, lay down to die.

So I said, “To fulfill my potential
As a writer.” And then he said, “Don’t laugh,
I want to fall in love and be loved back.”
At twenty-two, he had never been through
The groundless, steady rocking relation-
Ship stranded in the ocean with someone
Who can’t take their eyes off you long enough
To steer the ship. But you don’t care how love
Sick they make you. You wear your lifesaver
Like a tutu, then throw it overboard
Like a frisbee, and caution meets his old
Friend wind, who carries him ashore to wait
For you to wash up wailing, “Nevermore.”

I had forgotten what it felt like back
When all I wanted was to be gorgeous
And one day have someone just as gorgeous
Know how ugly I can be, yet love me.
Together, tumbling down a rabbit hole
Into the nonsensical world of us
Where the universe that is me collides
Into you, and a supernatural
Phenomenon erupts to make one world
Where gravity is banished and walls are
Hurled into the warm sky and vanish.

But I don’t like romantic comedies
As much these days because they have convinced
Our generation to scurry like mice
Looking for cheesy affection that could
Sustain their hungry, grumbly, love-starved souls.
But we can’t feed our souls the same food
That bodies need to be healthy and whole.

But the tragedy of the comedy
Is we swallow the candy hearts that say
Happiness is at the bottom of love’s
Drop, that it will cushion the heavy fall.
So everyone is staring at the ground
Looking for the next rabbit hole to dive down.
They are cooed into traps that
Snap shut on their noses, lured in by the
Sweet summer scent of a dozen roses.

Somehow people have forgotten to live
Because all they wish for is to be loved.
But I hope that you hear me when I say
Travel your road, don’t wander astray,
And the right person will walk your way.

You have to learn to love yourself before
Someone else can love you and you have to
Feel your own body from scalp to finger-
Tips to toes before someone else feels it.
You have to listen to your own heart beat
Before someone else can fall asleep to
The steady rhythm of life within you.

You have to be comfortable alone,
Bask and backstroke in your own company
Before a lover tests your waters.
When they do arrive, the warmer you are,
The more likely they’ll want to stay and swim.

Happiness lies in the leagues within you.
Romance is just one way to bring it out
But Cupid’s arrow can’t shoot it in you.

To the boy who wanted to fall in love,
I wanted to say, “Listen. It won’t be long
Until you get to sing your penguin song.
I’ve seen the earth from the moon
The whirling swirl of green and blue,
And once you decide to fall up, you will too.”

~ Salma