Friday Love Poem: Curtis X Meyer!

Handkerchief

I’ve seen you

go through others like tissues,

disregarding them once you’re through

and they’ve served their purpose;

left piles of trash on the floor

for someone else to pick up.

You need something more

permanent, light to the touch;

dependable, like a portable, pocket-size pillow

you can wash and re-use again and again.

Something that won’t irritate the skin or rub you raw.

I want to be your handkerchief.

I want to be the one who takes the sweat off your brow,

gets the dirt off your hands.

Soak me in water and I’ll help relieve your fever.

Use me as a napkin if you say the wrong thing and you can wipe

leftover letters from unspoken words off the corners of your mouth.

I want to be the one who catches the worst of you.

I want to be your handkerchief.

-No pretense.

-No metaphor.

-No over-the-top punchline involving hanky-panky.

I want to be the threads you run your fingers across,

baptized by your spit, able to take

whatever you throw at me and catch it like a circus net.

I want to be your soft landing, your perfect fit.

Something like a tourniquet – I want your initials sewn into me.

Fold me corner to corner, place me in your drawer

next to your socks and underwear

or keep me in your breast pocket

so you can carry me everywhere –

the one who’s closest to your heart.

Sentence Structure: A Love Poem

I.

It all comes down to semantics. Falling in

implies an open manhole, swallowing bystanders. I’d rather

Fall on Love, like a cushy mattress, a divine catcher’s mitt,

a net beneath hearts reaching out from the trapeze. Going in

implies ever-forwardness, a footstep through a curtain unveiling

the possibility of vast sunlight; a ship on course

guided by stars to a destination

permanent

only on maps of old. Better still

would be to Climb up Love,

a summit to stick a flag in after a trek through harsh elements;

a new perspective earned, from which all other things

seem small and trivial.

I don’t mind going in, but if I must

let me do so willingly –

I’d much rather

Dive than fall.

II.

Some loves are commas, a pause

between run-on sentences. Others

are semi-colons; one sticking

their heels into the ground, while the other

looks around past corners nostalgic

for something better. Some –

if they’re lucky –

are colons: A pair side-by-side,

both eyes fixed straight on a new horizon.

But there is always the sentence,

the desire to see just how it will end.   

When Love is gone, it becomes an ellipsis:

Each day a boxed prison of solitude indistinguishable

from the next until the sentence comes to a close...

Or another one begins. Yes,

there are declarations of Love. There are also

questions. Sometimes there are commands. Love

should always be an exclamation,

rocketing like the weight on a carnival

strength-challenge until it hits the bell

and crashes down; a comet highlighting

its glorious tail, even as it’s falling. Falling.

Some loves are quotation marks

sharing a park bench, both sides

turning to face each other as their refection,

examples to live their life by – asking without asking,

“Are you how it’s supposed to be done?”      

III.

The verb I find most bothersome is Making.

We do not make what we were born with,

or what we were made of. We only learn

to share our resources. Yes,

we can take Love, but You and I,

we have fallen in, fallen on, gone in,

climbed up, and dived into whatever

it is we have between us. All I ask,

is that you love me like a mercy killing,

kiss me like a firing squad. If I am blind,

let me be so willingly. I will tie the rag

around my eyes myself. I am not making.

I am Giving. And in this surrender,

you can use all that’s inside me

to fill your vases, lick up whatever rainbows

pour out of me to decorate the ground in puddles

when the mess has all been swept up

and the smoke has finally cleared.

Born in Scarborough, Ontario, not only does Curtis X Meyer have the mental disorder synesthesia, but his father Edward happens to be the Vice President of Museums and Archives for Ripley's Believe it or Not! He likes to think this combination makes him “quirky.” Not content with being a mere sex symbol, Curtis has performed across the U.S. and Canada, including appearances at  the 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam alongside the top spoken word artists from the U.S., Canada, France, and Australia, and at The National Poetry Slam for 6 consecutive years from 2005 to 2010 as a member of Team Orlando, not to mention hosting Real. Open. Mic, Orlando’s premier showcase event for poets, comedians, musicians, and all forms of entertainers between at Urban Deli! from 2009 to 2010. His works have appeared in numerous publications, and he has released three albums of poetry, the solo albums Certainty and Rant Down Babylon, and Go Home & Die as a member of the spoken word collective Quarantine Unit, in addition his chapbook of verse Ride The ¥ € $. Currently fighting the zeitgeist in Winter Park, Florida, Curtis plays his part to ensure the betterment of mankind serving as an editor, contributor, and linguistic alchemist for urbandictionary.com. His favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon and he thinks it’s extremely pretentious for anyone to talk about their accomplishments in third person. Regardless, Curtis wants you to know he loves that thing you’re wearing. No really, it brings out your eyes. curtisxmeyer@hotmail.com /www.facebook.com/curtismeyerwinterpark