Three love poems for Valentine's Day
Illustration by Rebecca Kottke
Lindsey McGuire is a third year student at UMD going for an English major with a Communication minor. She wants to use her degree in editing or publishing fields and hopes to work from home so that she can travel. In the meantime, she is happy being a cat mom while working at Pizza Luce to get “that bread.” This is her first time writing for The Bark. McGuire also hopes to publish a poetry book in the future.
Queen Midas
Snow days with you are the best.
School is canceled. Work called:
They’re closing early and don’t
Need me for the night shift.
Today just happens to be your day off.
Yet, you’re still the first one up —
As if the hostile weather outside
Is no more threatening than a baby bunny —
As I cower under seven blankets,
And our cat takes your place beside me.
Even though I love his cuddles,
I cannot stand the shape of your absence.
Against every other instinct,
I leave the cocoon to the cat,
Grab the bathrobe I keep on standby,
And head to the kitchen where I find you
Every morning.
The eggs smell amazing.
The bacon is perfectly crisp.
I can’t believe everything you touch
Turns to pure gold.
Without turning around you say:
“Hi, Love.”
My hands have found your waist,
Fitting my own curves to yours,
Like grossly cliched jigsaw pieces.
I am no longer cold.
HeLEOcentric
I watch you flit about the sky,
Commanding my vision
And waiting
For me to say something
Anything
To cross the divide we both
Perpetuate.
I can never understand you.
Every attempt ends without
Answers, just more questions.
You truly are the only one
Who has given me so many
Questions
About what I am
What I want
What I need
What I can handle
But speculation can only get one
So far.
Our times never lined up.
When you were ready,
I wasn’t.
When I was,
You weren’t.
And now you have a new Other.
But I don’t think she’s
Enough.
Just like how the last one wasn’t
Enough,
Or the one before her,
And how I am not
Enough.
The yearning in my soul
Cannot crush the shame,
Because you deserve the world.
And for all the things you make me feel
I am,
I know that your world is something
I am not.
Netflix and Chill
Imagine a girl sitting
Next to a boy on a couch
And she’s curled under his arm
Not because the movie is scary,
Or the room is cold,
Or she is tired,
Or she’s tryna...y’know…“chill.”
It is because she needs
No excuse. He lends
Simply because she accepts.
These two exist in their own land,
A rarity free from outside influence.
She is mostly thankful for
His large and gentle
Hands
That keep her together
When she lacks the strength
To do it for herself.
He, in turn, appreciates
Her small and rugged
Hands
And how they defy all dainty
Works in favor of hard labor
And feisty fields of practice.
He is her rock
She is his hero.
In this safe, warm limbo
They decompress and
Exchange the reins of worry
Which are far less heavy in
Someone else’s hands.
They are more than friends, but not
In the sense we have all come to
Understand. As persons, their only duty
To one another is to accept and support.
To Love ♦︎