I’m not going to pretend to love poetry and I’m not going to pretend that I know what’s good and what’s not, but I am going to make it very clear that I think that this poem is genius and incredibly romantic in a quirky, real-life way.
It’s from a woman named Jessie Burke who read the poem at the MSVU English Society thingy I presented at a few weeks ago. I completely welled up listening to her read it and I still get shivers every time. Like I said, I don’t know poetry but I do know that there is a beautiful love in this piece and her ability to connect with her readers is uncanny.
Now, I didn’t ask her permission to post this because I don’t really know where to find her. Jessie, if you make your way here, I think you are genius and I will take this down if you’d like.
63% human being
i resisted the urge to iron my shoelaces
but i can’t stop looking at my feet and thinking about it.
so instead i filed my nails until each one was perfectly rounded and all the same length.
i measured.
when people count their change, i put it into neater piles. they think i’m being helpful
but you’re smiling
because you know i couldn’t leave it the way it was.
i’m mortified, my thoughts are hanging in the air
but you are shrugging and whispering,
‘it’s just some type of abnormality in the neurotransmitter serotonin’
you don’t mind
walking in silence while i count sidewalk panels
always being in step with me
being held up in the grocery store.
i am frantic. i am dead set
on reorganizing the ‘On Sale’ display
and you help me
because you’ve seen it before
if it doesn’t get done you know i’ll pay
suffering intense distress when objects aren’t orderly, lined up or facing the right way.
you know it’s not funny
to pretend to count my freckles
or the hairs on my head
you don’t put things in the wrong place when we have company and say,
‘watch this.’
you understand what i have to do to clear my head of a thought
that i don’t want in there.
you know what things i shouldn’t do.
you know not to leave me alone boiling water in a pot
remembering that if one hand gets wet, the sufferer may feel very uncomfortable if the other one does not.
you know i can’t do the drugs i need
or the terrifying immersion therapy
to keep my brain working like it should.
‘look at all these things, uneven and out of line.’
you think i’m better off like this, than broken like that.
you’re always agreeing
to stay up late with me, measuring the distance between the windows and the doors.
you don’t mind me asking again,
you don’t mind guaranteeing
that it’ll always be okay that i’m 37% symmetry, 63% human being.
-Jessie Burke