Expectations

You wanted a girl with soft hands,

Full red lips,

A quirky personality to show off

Who would impress whomever she met.

You wanted a girl with cute dimples,

And a career in the arts,

Who would open the blinds to wake you.

She wouldn’t want to dance,

But did when you insisted.

She was a figment of your expectations,

A product of your imagination and ignorance.

Well, I wanted a boy with large hands

A crooked grin, tousled hair,

A passion for independent films

And portrait photography

Who licked his lips when he thought.

A boy with freckles

Who prefered soccer over football,

Who would tell stories

Casting me as the leading role.

But he, too, was a figment of my fantasy,

A product of my imagination and ignorance.

You got a woman who cares too much

And too little,

With common black hair, common brown eyes

A woman smarter than you,

In a way unimpressive to your friends.

Too old to have braces,

Too young to watch Fox News

Who too often doesn’t care either way.

But I am real,

A person, living and breathing,

Who makes you feel — good.

I got a man with knuckles that crack,

A tight smile,

No taller than me,

With crude friends and reality T.V. idols,

Ordinary like everyone I’ve ever known.

To make others stay away,

He tells the blunt, sugarless truth

And puts others down with loud, rambling jokes.

But you are real,

A human being, struggling and breaking,

Who makes me feel — good.