Have I Told You Lately?
Dear Jane Austen,
Did you ever wonder if a boy and a girl would watch the credits
to a Pride and Prejudice adaptation roll
on Valentine's Day weekend?
And, Mr. Darcy,
Did your heart thump just as loudly as this boy's
when you first saw Elizabeth Bennett
with skirt knee-deep in mud and face flushed red?
(My head was not on your chest,
so I couldn't be sure like I could with this boy,
but I like to think the answer's a "no.")
Elizabeth, did he whisper your name,
as if steeling himself for the imminent declaration,
and did you sit against him on that couch,
not sure what was coming next,
but knowing that in the stillness it was important
to wait for whatever it was?
In my life, I can say
I have had one perfect Valentine's Day.
I lay in his arms,
quiet piano tinkering along to a black screen,
and he had perhaps been terrified the entire movie,
to say three words to which we give far too much weight
and yet somehow not nearly enough meaning-
I loved you, too.
Dear Jane Austen,
Did you ever wonder if a boy and a girl would watch the credits
to a Pride and Prejudice adaptation roll
on Valentine's Day weekend?
And, Mr. Darcy,
Did your heart thump just as loudly as this boy's
when you first saw Elizabeth Bennett
with skirt knee-deep in mud and face flushed red?
(My head was not on your chest,
so I couldn't be sure like I could with this boy,
but I like to think the answer's a "no.")
Elizabeth, did he whisper your name,
as if steeling himself for the imminent declaration,
and did you sit against him on that couch,
not sure what was coming next,
but knowing that in the stillness it was important
to wait for whatever it was?
In my life, I can say
I have had one perfect Valentine's Day.
I lay in his arms,
quiet piano tinkering along to a black screen,
and he had perhaps been terrified the entire movie,
to say three words to which we give far too much weight
and yet somehow not nearly enough meaning-
I loved you, too.