not your bardling, but my own

bardling, a noun

 

I. to describe an inexperienced

and thus usually

inferior poet

 

II. more lover than fighter

preferring a broken heart

over bloody knuckles

but, don’t both burn

just the same?

 

III. and i can’t carry a tune

hands too unsteady to hold

an instrument with any 

kind of confidence

but i could hold you

if only you’d let me

 

IV. though, what kind of

bard can i really be

if i don’t believe in 

the concept of being in love

and the novelty of soulmates

continues to escape me?

 

V. not your bard

or bardling, rather

though, i could be

if only you’d ask

but it’s selfish of me

to want that, i know

 

VI. so, my love

and my captain

and my dear, dear friend

i’ll don bright clothes

and remake myself in

to a fool instead

 

VII. lay down some of this

melancholy at your feet

trying out glass half-empty

in all manners of love

 

VIII. and maybe i’ll learn how to

carry a tune without

my voice cracking

 

IX. a way to trick my hands into

no longer shaking

when i hold that instrument close

and coax such pretty sounds from

the strings 

 

X. and, if i’d rather hold you

in place of all those strings

and stained wood

well, no one needs to know