National Poetry Month: 3

April is National Poetry Month. Writer’s Digest has a Poem A Day challenge, which I’m going to participate in. A few of those poems will end up here. Check out the link if you want to try the challenge, too.

The challenge for the 3rd is to write a message poem.

Digitally Altered

I wanted to tell you how much I care

so I started with

—I miss you so much sometimes—

But I didn’t want to fill you with guilt and so

no matter how I wish to contract the space

between you

and me

I deleted those words of need

and began again

—I hope you’re doing well over there—

fell flat

because my tangle of hopes can’t be

conveyed when I don’t even know

what I want to say

So I wrote instead

—I love you—

because it is true

but it looked so lonely, laid bare

on the white screen that

I added a little sideways smiley face

and hoped you could read

between the lines