Contributor Series 4: Aspects of the Elephant
Failed Romance
By Stan Galloway
The little boy offers his best fire truck
and invites her to the box
while she sees the castles that he
has not built and the prince who
has not ridden to the rescue.
He says he likes the way she shows the
ribbon in her hair, meaning he likes
the way she shows the ribbon in her hair,
while she hears the one-tenth
surface to a nine-tenths depth he
won’t reveal.
He reaches out to tie the shoe
string that falls loose and she
begins to list the hundred other
broken things he’s failed to see, thinking
love and entropy are opposites.
He drives his cars around her,
happy that she chose to squat with him
for a time, while she wonders
why he needs her there while
he does his own thing oblivious.
Then she begins to talk and talk and he
turns his ear to her and finally says,
again, he likes the ribbon and
she turns away and leaves the box
to the shallow boy with the
one-track mind.
Stan Galloway’s poem African Crow appeared at vox poetica in 2009.
This defines so much … I love this poem.
I feel sorry for the poor little guy.
Mariah, I’ve thought about your comments several times. I suspect your sympathy is with the boy because that is where I, as the author, aligned my sympathies. I wonder though if the same kind of poem could be written, using much the same detials, where the sympathies would draw to the girl? I’d be happy for you to try your hand at it.