Unrequited
Glimpses of you
from a bus window
an imagined brush of
limbs, makes my soul
jump. Listen for you
in every conversation
and pretend to be
your nearest relation
click on photographs
of each tagged smile
want to trace dots
of summer freckles
loathe anyone with
their arm around you
dream of a pillow dent
on the left-hand side
of the bed. Bring you
tea on Sunday morning
plan the shared places
we’ve not yet been to
thaw your feet and lock
our heart into my skin.
As part of the poetry module on my diploma, we were asked to read Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’. The poem is essentially an address to a potential lover from a male suitor, who is tenacious in his pursuit. In reading critiques of the poem, I was struck by the absence of the female’s perspective, with the analysis often presented from the suitor’s point of view. Yet had the poem’s female character lived in the present day, might she have also tweeted: #MeToo? This led me to write a poem about unrequited love which can have a dark side, depending on how you experience it.
First published in Vamp Cat in Feb 2019
