Know You Best Poem by Loraine Lotter

This is not the proper time
for me to lose all my nerves and play the fool again,
but you can make the stars go wild
and now you’re staring straight at me …

I move back against the wall
because I’m not the type of girl that you usually go for,
and she is stalking past the lockers
with her piercing, cat-like glare fixed firmly on your face.

She isn’t really quite what you had in mind,
but I know that she’s not your type.
No, she’s not your type either.

‘Cause you like staying in on nights,
you like to watch old films and you secretly play chess.
I know ‘cause I have seen the frown whenever she’s around
and I know you best.

Strange expressions cross her face
when the bell rings and you slowly start walking away,
and I quickly step aside
‘cause she is charging like a bull down the hallway to her next class.

She must not have liked what you just said,
‘cause I have never seen her face as red,
seen her as red, oh my …

‘Cause you like staying in on nights,
you like to watch old films and you secretly play chess.
I know ‘cause I have seen the frown whenever she’s around
and I know you best.
Don’t let her change who you are now.
She shouldn’t have a say just because she’s your girlfriend.
I know ‘cause I have seen the frown whenever she’s around
and I know you the best!

I shrug and go to class, knowing that it’s where you’re going to be.
Pass your girlfriend, pass the locker, there’s my class around the corner,
and then you bump into me.

I can feel the weight of her glare like a stab in my back.

This is not the proper time
for me to lose all my nerves and play the fool again,
but you can make the stars go wild
and now you’re staring straight at me …

‘Cause you like staying in on nights,
you like to watch old films and you secretly play chess.
I know ‘cause I have seen the frown whenever she’s around
and I know you best.
And you say, “I’d like spend the night,
watching old films with you by my side.
Forget about my old girlfriend,
she didn’t know me best and you’re just my type.”