I would never read you a love poem

[subterrain]

So once someone read me this poem and I took it as a promise. My bad. But fuck this guy for being so great, amiriteguyse.

Love, Matthew DickmanWe fall in love at weddings and auctions, over glasses

Comments

[sistermine]

That's an amazing poem. It sucks you in and starts off being one thing, and ends up going somewhere entirely different. Thanks for posting it.

You don't say what the story is, but your comment made me remember something I haven't thought of for years.

I had cause to be suckered by a boyfriend reading me a poem. It was so romantic the first time that I was hooked, but then he appeared to forget he'd ever offered me the dedication. It robbed the poem of its meaning, and made me distrust his feelings for me. Of course it was just a metaphor for what was going on between us, but. Sad times.

[subterrain]

Ugh. THE WORST. Like, in the future, let's all just stick to reading each other Herodotus so that no one misreads the situation, okay guys?

I'm unclear, your ex was a poet reading something that was/wasn't for/about you, or was reading you a poem by someone else? I mean, either way you get burned. Every man I've ever dated who wrote poetry - bad or good, privately or publicly - was an asshole. Some more sociopathic than others. I have got to get back to my No Banging Writers rule. They are tricky motherfuckers.

But probably I'd break the rule for Matthew Dickman. End up loving him so much I'd starve to death in his bedroom.

[sistermine]

He was co-opting someone else's words, and gave me a copy of the book of poems/lyrics with a lovely message written in the cover, alongside "to my Suzanne". It should have been a clue that he chose Leonard Cohen, depression czar, whom I shall evermore associate with feeling hurt. (And to excuse him a little, we were only about 20 at the time, so it didn't seem cliched.)

Your rule made me laugh. I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of a writer, but a lucky escape once.

I'm not sure you should break your rule, even for MD. It would be sad to lose you to fandom in general for the sake of one personal fandom in particular, and he might end up living up to his last name.

[subterrain]

he might end up living up to his last name.

lolololol. Like, for reals. You're hilarious. Dicks. Man.

Yeah, the poetry thing is super cliched, so much so that I was outright shocked it was on offer. Like, uh. Wait. You're my one night stand and you want to read to me. Poetry. He made fun of himself at least. He also made me swear to never tell anyone. Ha, haha, forsureyeahright. He read to me from from Michael Robbins' Alien vs. Predator, which is at least fucking wicked, yanno. (I translate the Bible into velociraptor.)

The concept of living inside a personal fandom for your lover is an interesting iteration of thoughts I've been having lately about letting yourself play a bit part in someone else's narrative (generally a problem with artists, but as a writer I find I'm susceptible to it with writers especially).