"I Don’t Know About You, but Mostly I Just Want to be Held" by Stephen Furlong

Stephen Furlong is a poet living outside Kansas City, Missouri. He currently is an adjunct instructor at Metropolitan Community College- Longview. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming from places like Bone & Ink, Louisiana Literature, and Pine Hills Review, among others. Additionally, he currently serves as a staff reviewer for the journal Five:2:One and works specifically for the subset LitStyle.

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​I Don’t Know About You, but Mostly I Just Want to be Held
a line from Mary Ruefle
 
 
I am reaching my arms out in the dark looking
for light, if it came, would it be a gift? I wouldn’t know
whether to accept or decline, there’s something about wandering
that keeps me up at night. That and the nightmares, which have returned--
admittedly, I doubt they ever left.  Sometimes I’m able to go back to bed,
sometimes I just want to be held—still the distance between us feels like light-
years will pass like shooting stars, miracles if we believe in miracles, hope
hangs in the balance like the last word of a line— I’m still trying to write
about the love I’ve been given. I think it comes through the blinds,
the patch of sunlight my cat always seeks out, warming up his back, I can feel him
shake off the cold and he sprawls out, as to soak in every drip of the sun.