A poem about a Declaration

When you are waiting for someone to say something that you really, really want to hear, even the softest whisper will do. A rose by any other name still smells as sweet, doesn’t it? And a declaration, even if mumbled or mentioned nonchalantly, is still a Declaration with a capital D. If you are waiting for it.

And what could that be?

I love you.

Marry me?

We’ll be OK.

I’m coming home.

It may not be arty, but it could inspire a rhyme or two. Mine is called “Words in Flight”.

WORDS IN FLIGHT

Stop, wait, say what?
Could you repeat
what you said, word-for-word?
Reiterate,
just say it slow - 
I may have misinferred.

That thing you said
you know, that thing,
that thing you just murmured:
I thought it was
so very sweet,
a little hope was stirred.

How did you know
I’ve waited for
the question I just heard?
I was surprised
you thought to ask,
and that you remembered.

I'm desperate
to catch your words,
it really is absurd.
But it's too late:
they've slipped the air,
gone like a soaring bird.

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What rhymes with “word”?

The problem with this one was that it came from the phrase, “Wait, say what?”, so common on social media, but usually said prior to something peculiar but not critical. So a phrase used in a mundane way was meant to introduce an important idea. Getting from A to Z was tricky. The rhyme scheme got convoluted, with having to find words that rhyme with, obviously (!), the word “word” to end every triplet – because the important thing is the words that are being uttered, right? On top of that, the structure of every triplet is 4-4-6 syllables.

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