MY PROVERBS ❋ Nat Emerling

When I was a child, I prayed for wisdom.
To understand the grey areas.
To know more than the right and the wrong.

When I was older, I liked a boy in a serious way for the first time
and I began to pray for wisdom in love.
But with the boy,
and that boy,
and this boy,
there was always something unwise.
There was always a jagged edge that I could catch on.

He liked the shape of my face better than the color of my mind.
He thought my written words were invitation to criticize.
He was afraid, he was emotionally blind.

[They] liked me
vaguely,
[they] loved me
vapidly,
[they] wanted me
virtuously.

He decided not to try
to know me,
even though I knew it all.

So I became a chaste Solomon.

I could fill a palace with the chances I never took.
Love is not wise,
and I am not loved;

but like a fool, I am still praying for wisdom.