The Song Poem by Katrina Harms

hold on now
it’s just a song, it won’t last
not like love not like love
not like this song in my head

you take up all space
when you darken my dreams
a velvet cloud
all-encompassing

the song begins
i tell myself it will be brief, five minutes or less
i shouldn’t want it
not like love not like love
it shouldn’t feel like love

when you touch me
strong and graceful
a sunset shadow
engulfing

i run away
weep against the falling rain
against the chapping wind
into my own bare skin
it will end soon, sometime, someday
this will end

i don’t like it
{i remind myself}
i don’t like it
it’s not like love not like love
love’s
not like this song crowding my
mind, ripping me from the seams

i can’t hide my satisfaction
it’s my favorite song
and warms me from the inside
when you spread your lips to speak it
when you open your arms to hold it
when you close your eyes to feel it
i feel it too

holding me
like a hand holds a flame
on a dark night

i hear it
soft but
i hear it
deep and pure
like something precious
undiscovered

something i shouldn’t look for
but keeps tapping at my senses.
that song that slips so naturally
from you
trailing behind you

do you know this song, too?
it hurts to hear
then soothes softly,
caressing the wound
it has just made

i shouldn’t like it
i shouldn’t smile
when i feel it brush my face
it’s not right
it’s not ok
it’s not love
not love not love

but it feels

so
good