The Hidden Profile of Miss Perceptions

“I have given up trying to recognize you in the surging wave of the next moment.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

Of the thousand words
floating through these eyes,
never the right permutation.
The precise measure
of strength and empathy
known to none but me.

The one that doesn’t inspire
my wont to look for more …
or different.

The way I shine where there is intimacy to avoid.

The way it’s always more radiant in my head.

She must be this way,
he must have that,
and there’s no coffee in sight.
We’re all just one
“hi how r u?”
from oblivion.

An acutely pointless exercise
of sinuous principles
and abrupt departures.

Our repulsion to the desperate
measures our belief
in the age of self-help.
Perceive it otherwise, if you will,
but our attraction to the damsel
exposes our need for rescue.

The way a parent enfolds a crying child.

The way we deny it to save face.

Clinging to the ideal until I distorted,
turned inward, disillusioned,
and began to write.

These connections made inside
seem more enduring
than those made without.
Perhaps, more significant
are those to come,
or never made at all.

© 2008 Marcy Stoeckel
Excerpt from "You who never arrived", Rainer Maria Rilke