A Shape Beyond Itself

[YabbaDabba]

Let's begin this game on your terms.

I'll be your painted doll,

your distant saint,

your crumpled flower,

your ray of light.

 

You can tell yourself the rules are fair.

Because I give you meaning--

and you pretend to return the favor,

imagining we share the same breaths.

Let's hope that we can both survive on that.

 

Giving myself to you this way

isn't about self-sacrifice or

the joining of two halves of a whole.

It's just easier.

 

Easier to mold myself within your every whim

and be your dream, your hope,

and fantasy of perfection

and gentility.

 

No one ever admits that living is a hard task

of accepting our own mediocrity;

coming to terms with commonality,

yet deciding it's all worth it anyway.

 

So yes, I'll be your painted doll,

your distant saint,

your crumpled flower,

your ray of light.

 

And you can pretend the rules are fair

and that this is my self-sacrifice.

Only we'll know, but never say, that we

play along because this game of love

gives life a shape beyond itself.

[Daddy Bear]

This is an extremely well-written piece. You're lucky to have been blessed with such talent. Your poem shines light on things that people don't like to think about - which is one of the great justifications for the existence of art.

[AnotherBrokenDoll]

I really like this one, as SB has said you explore the things we like to put to the back of our minds and just forget. Its nice to see someone forcing it forward and speaking about it.

 

Lovely

[Muzatsu]

that poem was really well written. I especially loved this part:

 

"You can tell yourself the rules are fair.

Because I give you meaning--

and you pretend to return the favor,

imagining we share the same breaths.

Let's hope that we can both survive on that."

[YabbaDabba]

Thanks, everyone.

 

I'm actually a bit of a hopeless romantic, so this poem was inspired by the fact that many of my friends (and the world, in general) seem to jump from relationship to relationship without meaning.

 

You know the type: the people who have to be with someone because being part of a "couple" in some way validates them.

 

Yeah. I find that tragic, but as Elizabeth Bishop said, "it's just the common case."