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355th Weekly Poetry Contest winner: A guide to loving us

by Mohamed Sarfan

I do know.
I do know who I am.
I am both confident & insecure.
I prefer the sunset over the sunrise. I breathe easier at night.
I collect movie tickets, writing the names of the people I went with on the back & lighters
My wall is covered in pictures from ceiling to floor & it helps me travel through time.
My cure for hiccups is to place a paper towel over a glass, then drink the water through it.
I’m extremely picky with men, not food.
I’ll put salt on just about anything, but Buffalo wings are too spicy for me.
I’d drink pickle juice if it didn’t make me sick & my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
If I could have dinner with anyone alive, it would be Ellen DeGeneres, & dead, my uncle Joey.
My favorite color is red, but it’s really green.
I never wear matching socks.
Sometimes I where a second pair over the first.
I talk to Him when I can’t fall asleep & do the sign of the cross when an ambulance passes me.
I am not religious.
I stick my tongue out before I eat & my power of choice would be to read minds hands down.
I can’t go anywhere without my seven rings & I prefer the moon & snow over the sun & shine.
I always forget to close my windows & sloths are my spirit animals.
I once slept for 21 hours’ straight.
I can definitely do that again.
Two things I must do before I die: Ride in a hot air balloon & see the Northern lights.
I want to own a horse someday & I have an overwhelming fear of birds, particularly geese.
I pay close attention to people’s walks & I’m completely incapable of telling a lie.
I never wear my hair in a high ponytail because my hair is too heavy.
I hate my birthday & I always see the clock at 33.
The Alchemist is my favorite book & I crave coffee at all hours of the day.
I know I talk in my sleep sometimes & I may twitch slightly, but at least I share the blanket.
I have to live thirty minutes away from the water just to be able to look at it.
Montauk is my favorite place.
My biggest pet peeve is when hair sheds.
I can whistle, loud, sometimes without even realizing it.
I’m extremely indecisive, so I’ll usually settle for chocolate, occasionally mint chocolate chip & asking me to crush a bottle of wine & buying me sunflowers will definitely make me fall in love with you.

I have one tattoo, “Think a Happy Thought” because I have a fear of growing up.
I’m stuck in the present.
Reflecting on what I’ve said or done to better prepare myself for what I’ll do or say.
My reflection of my past leads to my actions in the future.
I admire those who push me enough to cry, that’s how I know who cares.

I am both easy & hard to love, but I can gulp pain in a single sitting.
It’s difficult to give myself credit.
I am an extremely awkward human being.
I can’t tell the difference between what I want & what I need.
My biggest secret — I always thought I was meant to die young.
I always feel like I can do more.
I’ve realized I am a perfectionist.
I want to save the world someday.
I can feel the stress in my eyelids before I even open them in the morning.
I’m constantly calculating how much money I have in the back of my mind.
I always end up putting my confidence in other people’s hands.
If I focus too much on getting it right, I get it wrong.
I’m working on being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I want to see myself as a threat emotionally, mentally & physically.
I would never psychically harm myself, but I do emotionally, mentally.
My car is the safest place in the world to me.
I have a weird thing with lights, when I look at them they either turn off or on.
I wish my brain was better at remembering & loving itself.
One of the hardest moments of my life was giving my great grandma’s eulogy & watching my dad walk in & sit in the back of the church after not seeing him for over a year.

I fear I won’t have an impact or have no right to want, to take or receive.
I’m done with trying to stop certain things from happening.
The most annoying question I get is, why don’t you just stop?
People feel comfortable approaching me & telling me how they feel or what they think of me.
I work hard for certain compliments.
It took me a long time to get to the level of confidence I have now.
I don’t think I’m ready to give that up yet.
If I had to live one moment of my life on a continuous loop, I would pick the moment when…
Actually, I’ll save that one for myself.
I detach myself as a third party in my drive for self-awareness.
If you see me chewing on a straw or pulling at my lip, please leave me to my thoughts.
I breath, I listen & I watch.
This is what I do to survive.
You can tell a lot about me by the way I breathe.
I am an extremely private person.
I am set in desire & that is different from love.
I want someone to fall in love with me as organic as possible.
Willing to hear all the things that go on in my head.
To constantly reassure me, I can’t pursue perfection.
I want someone who knows struggle like I do, who knows what I need before I need it.
If you can give me what I want, I can give you what you need.
I will do just about anything to escape.
I have addictive personalities.
My purpose is my identity.
Life is a game to me.
If you want to be in my life, you’ll have to be willing to play with us.

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See all the entrants to 355th Weekly Poetry Contest