NaPoWriMo2024 Day Two
2 min readApr 2, 2024
I’ve already missed one day of National Poetry Writing Month. Oh well.
Today’s prompt is to write a platonic love poem.
Well, on my side, it was platonic.
Oliver
by ARHuelsenbeck
when you asked me out
I accepted immediately
I'd read your poems
in the school literary journal
I knew you'd be interestingbut I didn't expect you
to fall in love with meI thought we were just
getting to know each other
but you were making plans
for our futureI admired your creativity
I wanted to talk about literature
you wanted a girlfriendyou professed your love
I didn't respond the way you hopedyou wanted a commitment
I wanted my freedomI continued to see other people
I began turning you down
but I'm no good at letting people down
gentlyyou asked to see me
one last time
afterward you would never call me againover dinner you handed me an epic poem
four pages of your meticulous tiny handwriting
the pressure of the evening made it difficult to breathe
much less to read
I tried, I really did
but I couldn't make sense
of the wordsfinally, I just said
it's beautifulyour mouth dropped open
you stared at me
incredulousyou drove me home
with tears running down your cheeksweeks later
I found the poem in my purse
and read it without the pressure of your watchful eyesthe anguish of your broken heart
the despair of your lost dreams
the torment of your longing
it was all thereand I had told you it was beautiful
About Andrea R Huelsenbeck
Andrea R Huelsenbeck is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a former elementary general music teacher. A freelance writer in the 1990s, her nonfiction articles and book reviews appeared in Raising Arizona Kids, Christian Library Journal, and other publications. She is currently working on a middle grades novel and a poetry collection.
Originally published at http://arhtisticlicense.com on April 2, 2024.
