Poetry
Friday Flashback: A Poem About Love from My Misspent Youth
Yes, Virginia, being a teen was miserable before social media, too
Flying starship gossip waves,
Are orbiting my head,
Rumor has it Jupiter and Pluto wish me dead,
Astroboy told everyone about the other day,
When I said all those nasty things,
For lack of things to say.
But if that weren’t bad enough,
Flash Gordon never phoned,
I thought that love was in his eyes,
But he was merely stoned.
Author’s note: I wrote this in high school in the 1970s when I was the victim of unrequited love. Jupiter and Pluto represent a couple of fair-weather friends, Astro Boy is the annoying kid brother of one of those friends, and you can probably guess who Flash Gordon is. Although I’m still in touch with all these people, the mixed feelings persist.
©2022, Denise Shelton. All rights reserved.
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