The Lake of One's Being

17 February 2007

I'm absolutely loving this poem.
It has got me reading and re-reading it for days, and poring through it line by line. But most of all, it broke my heart with the quiet simplicity in which it states the stark truth about unrequited love.

the girl who could love you
(6 spam fantasies)

vi.

You already know her, have known, will know her. She’s been waiting all her life, or for as long as it’s realistic to wait, if waiting is what one does, until eventually she settles into someone of whom she is mostly fond, someone kindly and to her eyes secretly dull, who knows neither the key to her secrets nor what to do with them. She is content not to be alone, and to be cared for dutifully, might even come to call it, loosely, love. You might think nothing of her, browsing through your database of faces. You might screw up, let yourself go, even almost hit her once and she’d forgive you, no questions asked, she would have loved you that much. You could spill the milk, forget the detergent, drink as much beer as you want, see other people, stay up late watching movies: there is nothing she could not overlook save your absence, replete as she is with the simple fact of you. Such ease with which you make her preternaturally happy, a carelessly tender word, the accidental brush of your fingers, a distracted smile between the shower and the morning papers. There is nothing you would need to understand, no lock you need to pick with care and patience, nothing to be said or unsaid. It would have been perfect. If only she were someone you could bring yourself to love.

By Alvin Pang

QLRS Vol. 2 No. 4 Jul 2003

[I've only listed part VI of the entire poem because it's my favorite. For the poem in its entirety, please visit this page.]

12:58 AM;

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