A Mama Bear’s Message in a Bottle
A free verse poem — lessons on relationships for my daughter and younger self
It gleams
The smile plastered on your face
as you grip a pencil
scribbling letters to a boy
on colorful origami paper
In drifts a breeze of spring innocence
Sunlight flickers
a reflection
In ten years you’d be the same age
I met my first love — a boy
All hope I devoted to
writing page after page
A message in a bottle
I’d address to my past self
Hello, Earth to Tracy
once on top of the world
only to drop and discern
you knew nothing
A tight grip
twisted around a finger
Had me teeter between attachment and affection
Asking if it was genuine or an illusion?
May you love yourself enough to know the difference
It took me ages
Through the looking glass with thorns
I peer and see clearly
Fiery flutters and firsts of infatuation
warped the world in a kaleidoscope
but hindsight tells me it was tunnel vision
Promises and potential
present themselves as a gift
leave you entrapped with a neat bow
Examine the whole package
Relationships are magic
as is conjuration
bound to second chances
Even if his voice makes you melt
He can stick a kiss to your lips, over and over
and smear empty words
To hear a heart beat loud
like the ceaseless thumping of a drum
let what starts with “I” and ends with “You”
fall on deaf ears
Watch it unfold
spelled out through actions
Let side effects be a lesson
Love is a drug
potent enough to obscure your senses
Are you met halfway
and treated as a person?
Or like a trophy to be won
then left up on the shelf to collect dust
Don’t hope to see tomorrows together
if they make you question your worth
Your history
Your position
Yourself
Music to your ears
but does he inch closer to listen?
Do compliments drip with sincerity
or screech like a broken record?
As sweet as a candy necklace
with others strung along
A smooth talker is never wrong
and a familiar melody echoes to seduce
However colorful your days are
like origami paper
don’t bare your soul to someone
who can’t even paint white lies with the truth
Let your emotions guide you
but not get the best of you
Time will tell
and sift diamonds in the rough
After the inevitable ebb and flow
of relationship woes
you’ll drown in the throes
Learn the hard way how bouquets will wilt
in diluted waters
But, still, today
in drifts a breeze of spring innocence
I see you by the window
scribbling letters to a boy
with a gleaming smile plastered on your face
when the writing’s on the wall
One day, you may break and fall
You won’t know what you’ve been missing out on
until you have it all
What’s real will not go astray
And my hope is for you to meet a man
like Daddy someday
