Poet's Best Friend
Poem, keep what I love. Be my treasure trove of youth and spontaneity. Envision every absurd kissing booth kiss and the girls who wanted it on the lips. Let me taste the smooth chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping we bought with the money we made. Drop freshly planted daises in front of the houses of the cutest freshman girls; ring their doorbells, and run away jumping and screaming. Describe to your sweetheart how hysterically your little cousins laugh and the raspberry sound you make when you blow into their belly buttons like balloons. Savor the unsure smile she makes just before you blow into hers.
Be kind to the hero of my poem. Protect my tender tendencies. Be gentle with the agonizing pull of braces rubber bands. Remember the smiles braved through three years of sharp orthodontic pain. Teach me that pain is a worthwhile feeling. Inspire me the way astronauts are inspired. Bless me with the will to travel to the farthest star in the sky while never leaving my two flat feet. Shoot the stars into my pen ink trail.
Poem, show love like Pagliacci. Pour out heart-wincing music under a clown's armor. Break my heart at the right time in the right places because I'll never learn to break it by myself. Show me you are proud like my father, who has measured my height on the same wall since Kindergarten, reminding me that I have grown. Poem, cry for me when I don't think I should. Ask me what I think is important. Keep what I love.