Mixed Media Poem by Ben Partenay

write this down
"my words rippled likes waves that crashed
on the shores of your
too wild mind"
no that's not quite right, try this
"I told you how the flowers
dried up and melted petals
on the table that was never clean enough"
is that a picture you could paint? maybe that's
not quite it either, maybe words can't explain themselves
and maybe that's blasphemy.

try this, flicked finger
on your open mouthed cheek, you sound
hollow, you made yourself hollow. hear
the echo
in there? does the sound
ever hit the bottom of the
well you dug with words
sharpened doing The Times crossword?

but that was morning and this is
mourning and sometimes days are weeks
we try and forget with dry erase and crumpled
newspapers full of incomplete crosswords.
did you wash your hands? did you
dry your hands?
I'm wet with sweat and wearing through
my pockets.

write this down
"I'm sitting at a desk built from trees of a forest
that I probably loved, "
is that it? tell me you understand how
to glue the petals back together, tell me
that waves can be both water and sound.

this is a mixed media collage I wanted
to throw away but I'm trying to
recycle.

you would have liked that.