Forbidden Love

Forbidden Love

I stare at her longingly

Desiring to possess her

Yet I'm always told

Don't bother

The agony of seeing her

And being unable to hold her

My hatred towards society

And their silly viewpoints

I should be able to have her

We connect in so many ways

Who feels so elevated

That they dictate conditions

Of true love?

I happen to believe

That blood relation

Makes our spiritual bond

Even closer

Susan unearthed this poem I wrote as a teenager. For a while, writing inappropriate poetry was a pastime of mine (making me an inappropoet?) and I especially got a kick out of "Forbidden Love"'s last stanza incest reveal. I submitted it to my high school literary magazine where it was initially rejected. So then I intentionally became friends with the editors, and without me having to ask, they reconsidered and ran it anyway.

I did have some reservations about publishing the poem because, in a world where people take things at face value, particularly when it was presented alongside other angsty and unironic teenage poems, I wasn't sure that my peers would get that it was a joke. But then I figured, heck, I graduate in three weeks. The real fun would be knowing that if a scandal were to arise, my sister still had two years of high school to go.

Love you, Alison!

No really… LOVE YOU!