A Poem For Hopeless Romantics Like Me

I wrote this poem during my time at SUNY Oswego.

It’s late at night, and I’m heading back to my dormitory by the lake. I wasn’t in a rush, but I noticed the couple walking in sync. When I saw how they interacted, it was so pure, wholesome, and straight out of a movie scene. Amid a heartwarming moment, I also felt a deep sense of sadness. I’d love to marry someone someday! I intensely yearn for a simple but happy life with someone to share all my ups and downs with. This bittersweet feeling is what inspired the poem! There are references to snow because it tends to get cold in Oswego, which is by Lake Ontario, so the region is no stranger to wintry weather.

Here’s my poem titled “The Stranger Stroll.”

I stroll behind a couple at night in Oswego.
While walking, I envisioned our life, perfect, like the first fall of snow.
Under the lamp posts, the streets glowed. He put his arms around her shoulder.
His head craned to cradle her, a sweet swan gesture.
He kissed her and killed me, shattered me like annealed glass.

I’m a battered penny thrown away, 
but I still toast to the rough sidewalks and their silhouettes,
yet I’m passing everything except them.

I see you in the puddles of rain. I gravitate towards your ghost.
Your face is animated like a hand-drawn flipbook when I stroll.
You’re weighing heavily like a stone thrown on my soul.
Cracking, breaking up like snow-sleek streets filled with salt holes.

I replay an imagined love like a VHS tape.
But the Cassette’s a casket, and I’m sitting at the back of
The funeral service of my dreamy love fantasies.
I was the only one there. The only one that cared. 
I carry my agony like a purse, purse my lips as 
I cling to a painful past and the future I’ll never have.

I heard their laugh linger in the chill air, 
ahead of me, breathless, I stare.

Hopefully, readers can put themselves in the moment to experience the poem as I did. I also want readers to know that it is okay to want and hope for something that seems so unlikely to happen. There is a beauty in that bittersweet feeling; it’s ugly, it’s embarrassing, but also fully human in us. Moments like walking behind a couple may not seem like much, but to me, they were worth capturing and building on in my world. I hope this reminds readers to spread gratitude because those small good moments that fly by can bear the weight of the world to someone else.

Featured image via author