Personal Ad Poem by J. Barrett Wolf

ach of us types...
Copywriting for our own little ad agency
Selling long walks on the beach
Candlelit dinners
witty conversation
Just the right pickup line
Just the right punchline
Just the right headline...

Must love cats!
Must love dogs!
Must love children!
Must love... ME.

A prize to the lucky winner
Offered up from the sweet, longing center
Of a Cracker Jack heart.

We want to wrap our minds,
Our thoughts, our thighs and our future
Around another wayward soul
And hold on for dear life.
Forming that simplest of tribes
The one that provides solace
From a random, graceless world.
Watching their back, as they watch ours
Allowing us those few precious moments
Of relent.
Basking in a cove safe from peril and pirates.

We wish as hard as we can
That love, and every longed-for hope,
Can resuscitate us
As easily as children clapping for Tinkerbell
Defeat the darkness.

All the while we abide
Swallowing the bitter with all that sweet...
This may be a long, long wait
For a train don't come.