{"sf1_id":null,"sf2_id":"Xek5pydn","title":"Gift Ballade for a Long Distance Relationship","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":240,"posted_at":"2024-09-27T19:05:32.000Z","tags":["ballade","gay","lgbtq","poem","romance"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/Xek5pydn-gift-ballade-for-a-long-distance-relationship","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Xek5pydn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/d1/06/d1065904-3a57-48d9-be60-7d2728daa9c1","description":"I must have written this at some point between 2003 and 2008, because while it was clearly meant for one of my then-long-distance boyfriend's birthdays, I did not keep any record of it myself. Husband found it in some random file backup, somewhere, along with a lot of other stuff, much of it also clearly mine, of which I have even less explanation. So it must have been written before I actually lived with him, and it must have been written before I got away from my parents and had to conceal that I was romantically involved with men, and interested in men or I would've saved a copy myself somewhere.  \n  \n---  \n  \nBy reading this online version, you confirm you are not associated with OpenAI or any other AI project, that you are not procuring information for the OpenAI corpus or any other machine learning database, that you are not associated with the ChatGPT project or a user of the ChatGPT project or any other AI, machine learning, or algorithmic database focused on producing fictional content for dissemination.","content":"I wonder sometimes if you really know\n\nThe way you make me feel in bed, at night.\n\nThe way, though I’m alone, I am not low,\n\nThe way you make my dreams all come out right.\n\nAnd in the morning, in the choral light,\n\nMy dreams have gone and stranded me above\n\nHigh regions where words fail and fall and fight.\n\nThere are not many words that rhyme with love.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI thought that words were what I worked with well.\n\nI once could split a meaning clean in three,\n\nMix it, saute it, salt to taste, and tell\n\nWhat meaning meaning meant. Now I can’t see\n\nHow I can mean what you have meant to me.\n\nI guess I could use heartbeats, or a dove,\n\nAnd things like that, soft sighed, and sappily.\n\nThere are not many words that rhyme with love.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThere’s many things you know I want to say.\n\nThere’s more things that we both would like to do.\n\nThere’s something that is always in the way,\n\nThere’s something stronger, though, and I mean you.\n\nOur friendship is unsanctioned, it is true.\n\nSome may suspect some sodomitic shove.\n\nWhatever. It says what I’m saying too:\n\nThere are not many words that rhyme with love.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nPrince or brother, when we someday meet\n\nYou’ll understand what I was talking of.\n\nSo Happy Birthday. May these words be sweet,\n\nEven the ones that do not rhyme with love.","series":{"name":"poetry","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2152805-mistolinic-hymn.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/GnDLP20n-a-young-ballade-and-naive.json"}}