teenage in love

Here’s my second oldest poem, from 1964. This was always Mother Dwarf’s favorite because it was so light-hearted — except it’s not, it’s quite dark, even though it does have a certain sweetness.

After two years in the enlisted Navy, I’d gone to the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School in Bainbridge, Maryland, to see if I could graduate high enough to slip into the Naval Academy through their back door. (Which I did). While there I had a roommate who’d fallen in love for the first time and his girl called him “Teddy Bear.” I wrote this poem to show him the standard operating procedure arc for most relationships. A month later she broke his heart.

S.O.P.

It hurts to be a teddy bear
To sit alone, unused
No longer wanted anywhere
Just left alone, confused

I’m tossed aside to lie in here
This dank and musty chest
The dampness serves to hide my tear
The dark to mock my past

Not always thus, this has been no
I was her fair haired toy
She loved me once, I pleased her so
I shone, her chosen joy

Yet here I lie in darkest net
Her love for me did end
My love for her she deemed forget
She found a stranger friend

And now the stranger she does mold
And twists him through the air
While in this chest my heart grows cold
Alone and frightened, bare