Alloy Amour | Gladiators and Binoculars by Melinda Longtin

Alloy Amour

You are my lodestone

Always lost

When I’m with you

But my direction is clear

You are exactly

Where I want to be

 

On your lips

Around your neck

Imprinted

In your chest

 

I’m on the North Pole

But I’m not cold

You’re on the South

But you’re not far

 

Started with steel

Branded by nickel

But

You have etched

All my veins

With titanium

 

Ferrous forever

You are my alnico

Flexible

Created to love

All my unusual shapes

 

We are ticonal

Two magnetized meteorites on one belt

My amour

My olivine

 

 

 

Gladiators and Binoculars

Braid our roots together.

Interlocked gloves,

Similar aspirations,

Odd histories,

And strong ambitions,

To alter the tracks of many.

 

To espy you

In all your hidden staircases

Would be an honor.

Subtly,

Softly,

You entice me

With tiny rescues,

Favors,

And powerful words.

 

A mountain of grace

Battling with a shield

For the crux of empathy.

 

As two gladiators

Peering through the same binoculars,

We should be

On the same team.

∞

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Melinda Longtin fell in love with poetry as a child. In her work, she seeks to use powerful imagery and metaphors to illustrate meaningful concepts related to trauma, relationships, mental illness, and philosophy. My poems have been published in three issues of Claudius Speaks, and I plan to publish a poetry book about recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder in the near future.