I bet you would never guess
how nervous I was to call you.
I bet you’d be surprised
to know the size of the gap
I imagined between us—
whole oceans could be swallowed
in there. You with your easy laugh.
You with all your friends. Surely
you have all those friends in part
because you are friendly.
But I was scared. Scared
I was not enough—
not smart enough, not cool
enough, not funny enough,
not strong enough, not self
sufficient enough to be your friend.
Oh that insecure part of me,
I know it does no good to judge her.
So I look at the insecure me,
and I look at the me
who would judge her,
and I get to look at the me
who can love her
and all of us get in the car together
and drive to your house
to drink coffee and talk
and do what friends do—
jump in the gap
and swim.
Wow. Simple yet powerful. Thank you so much for sharing this. I will definitely follow your blog and return to read more.
I have a new writing blog that I created after self-publishing my first novel on Kindle. Please check it out and share your writing experiences with me!
http://gdalexander.wordpress.com/
-G.D.
congratulations on the book! and your first sale, which I read about!
Love it great Poem
and here we are again… judging ourselves to be lesser than our fellows. we think we’re alone with our carload of fractured selves, never pondering why our envied friend needs a minivan
Where the insecure part of of poem emerges, there is the true confession for me. The two you. The confession at the start is nowhere as sincere.
Oh Rosemerry, this poem could have been written by my heart (although not nearly as beautifully as you wrote it!)…this whole concept of “enough” has been a heavy and daunting lesson I’m supposed to be learning lately. Bless you for the image of the selves climbing into the car together…this helps paint this struggle as oh so human. Thank you!
Thanks, Emily … Great to see you Wednesday in the aisles of the store … Thanks for the feedback … Hugs to you, r