Maddy Rain
The Things I Learned From Franklin Moore
The things I learned from Franklin Moore
That passions are blind
Steadfast and patient
My face flushes wildly as the words you read
Bounce from the page into your mouth
Fall upon my ever-patient ears
Poems of intertwining love
Sweet love
You speak the words with such fervor
As if they take you somewhere else
A higher place
You become someone else
I see only you
I feel my heart will escape and take flight
I can bear this no longer
You pause and say my name
How joyous!
A proclamation of ecstasy I try so hard to dispel
Averted, dear me, so close
My secret safe inside
My name you call
“Yes, my love” I dare not answer
“Yes” I beckon you
The word escaping so feebly from my lips
“What is the meter and rhythm of this poem?”
My heart has sunken beyond utter despair
Our love will never be
I mumble a response
You smile and your eyes meet mine
My love!
Such sweet embrace!
“That’s absolutely so!”
You apprised
I the student
You the teacher
Later on that day
I sat in a coffee shop
Across the way
Not far from where we met
I sit and study the words you informed me to know
And who should enter but you, my love
Walking to my table
And take your seat near mine
You ask me for my insight on the class you taught
How was I to say anything bad of you?
The things I learned from Franklin Moore
I buttered you up, you thought
My nose; mahogany
I cooed you on
Oh, how you fell!
Indecently so!
I spoke of my vast knowledge of poems I never read
I told you of all the great poets that had inspired my writing
I hadn’t written a single word
I figured my words fell on deaf ears but your eyes lit up
I knew you saw my soul
The point I tried to convey
My words could not
Would not
Express such duress
You leaned in tenderly
And the sensation of lip’s caress made my heart explode
Oh, how heaven cannot differ!
You peeled away and lovingly your eyes met mine
I the student
You the teacher
Dumb girl!
What a horrendous fate I have undertaken
Forbidden art of love
Certainly, they have a place in Hell for heathens such as I
Selfishly I stole her kiss from you
The one you really loved
Your wife’s
You the teacher
And I the meager student
Guilty you felt sitting there numb
Starring at my soft features in the moonlight
Night had fallen but we had not
You didn’t want to leave
I wanted you to stay
We sat in silence and looked on at one another
In utter amazement
Utter disdain
Oh, cursed time!
Separating us from our unending love
Oh cursed God!
For making me feel the affections I feel
However, I do not blame thee
Only myself
But You, my Lordship, implanted such feelings
To what end?
He the teacher
I the student
The dirty deed was done
That following week or so
More than once
Ashamed I felt
Smooth and gentle
Till sunset had come to bid us ado
My hips pressed beneath your fingertips
You held me, trembling
Your breath labored
My breast heaving against your chest
When the cold of your ring
Oh, cursed ring!
Touched my spine
I imagined it felt like the pain of a soldier
Run through with a sword
By one’s own comrade
Cold hard steel
I loved you anyway
The only way I knew how
You the teacher
I the student
She your wife
Oh lucid affair
Born out of nothing but implacable demands
I had you and you had me
You told me once that you didn’t love her
But she loved you
This much I knew
The things I learned from Franklin Moore
Never did I know how
I could loath a man so
Until I’ve been deep within their love
I learned to love was to give it all
I learned that some doors should never be opened
I learned how to grow up
How to love
How to be a woman
I learned that I was beautiful
That I was funny and smart
I learned what it meant to love a man
How to really love a man
I learned how a heart could break
And how to shut the door
I left one day
Never dare return
I locked the door behind me
Never to turn around
I wonder if you ever think of me
Or if you even miss me
But the way you held me with such esteem
The way your eyes met mine
The things I learned from Franklin Moore
Was more than I could comprehend
The meaning of poetic verse
That atmosphere of jubilee
Oh how you told me
“The stars are bright but you are so much more to me”
You said you loved me more than you could stand
It’d hurt you more if I should have stayed
I thank you, Franklin Moore
For all the things you taught me
For the love, you fought me
I the student
You the teacher
She the wife
I live a far off way from you now
I have a daughter to call my own
And a husband as well
The things I learned from Franklin Moore
Still affect my everyday
Still affect the thoughts I think
The words I say
I will love you always
For you dared to love me once
You shall never be forgotten
Not even for a moment
But even now, I say
I have lived those days over again
For I the student
And you the teacher