Poem of the day

Saturn's Rings

When people say they're in love,

I always wonder what they mean.

Those four letters strike me

with fear and bewilderment

my heart races, my hands clam

and suddenly I am in first grade

learning about Saturn's rings,

giddy by their color and beauty

stupefied by a world of darkness

I never knew I belonged to.

My friends call me a walking dictionary

but there is one word I can't define

one word that haunts me, scorns me:

I fear I will never understand.

I don't speak of it or write of it

because that would be like an artist performing surgery

so it is the tragedy

I hide in the darkness,

never speaking of, but never forgetting.

I tell myself it doesn't exist,

but I know I'm lying.

If not for love,

then for what?

Maybe this is the source of its power

maybe I will always be in first grade

in love's classroom.