Poem: how?

how do you do it?
i'd like to know because
it would make it all so
much easier

it seems to come naturally
to you
like getting off a bike
or combing your hair
and
you never seem to
give it much thought while

i can't seem not to

how do you do it? because
after all this time and
so many hard, rough lessons
i still have not learned how

is it an affliction? is it a choice?
befuddled. ruffled. resolute. stuck. tightly
held yet no longer held

dropped like a rock into a still pond that
stays still

how do you do it?

how do you stop loving someone?


-- doug smith


15 July 2019

Poem: off again

did i ever tell you
that any of that
                mattered
or that
       holding out hope
is what i do best?

with your barely open gates
closing and
your once flirtatious musing
silenced you
look at me
          differently and
see another friend
                  ending
this dance
          again
ending this
          dance
again
          But,

didn't you tell me that

you don't dance?

-- doug smith

Poem: short timers

turn the pages
quickly; isn't that
the sign of a good
book?
go fast go heady go
for the finish
have fun be done
then run

ah, the sign of a
good book, a great
game and
a sad relationship

when do you give up?
only one right but
more rare than caring
allows ~ when do you
give up?
all i senselessly say
to that can be
never never never
never never never
never never never
never never



-- douglas brent smith




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

Poem: nonsense

it was her attempts
at perfection that
kept perfection away

locked up walled in
and
kept at bay

never quite good
enough to ever
satisfy

substantiated reservations
proof to deny

tell me again
why it all had to end
no, stop
nonsense never bears
repeating.


-- douglas brent smith




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

she never said

she said that
she loved me
to the moon and back and
to the moon and
back just got a 
whole lot shorter

your roundtrip gave me
the bends as

you closed the portal and
swept this sobbing
away
as love choked gasping
on yet another
tripping dream

and 

she never said that
what she said
didn't mean a thing




(c) 2017 douglas brent smith

not a couple

every couple fights
about money about attention about
    harmless searing flirtations
    temptations, indiscretions and
    thoughts

every couple fights about passion
   and lack of passion
about furniture, fixtures, fantasies and
   families
   all those dysfunctional families and

we don't fight about any of that
    because we are
                   not a couple
and we fight about that

knowing what i want you
   choose to escape and
knowing what you want i
   senselessly cling
   a mess of depressed repression
unappealing
   stealing every ounce of hope
from the air

and you repeat (repeat, repeat) that
   we are NOT a couple but

what about this love?


-- douglas brent smith