Don’t show, don’t tell
lies and fictions to me
that bolster your
sense of your troubles
how rough your life is and
how you are full of doubts
Stop giving
a sheen to you and me
everything
from your heart inside
to the world and
the reality out
of your control and
Stop saying our love’s
powerful and yet so strange
just so – and then more – and so
rooted in love and real
genuine tenderness in
your heart and the
things we did in the dark
Stop asking me to think
about and around and of
all your thoughts and the
things raw and tender
that aren’t really things
between us that
we did when we
were together and when we were
apart or just working
because life moves on
/ / /
This poem was written in response to the “portrait” prompt at Poetic Asides. This is my first attempt at a golden shovel, using the following verse from “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” written by Keith Forsey and Steve W. Schiff and performed by Simple Minds.
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out and
Love’s strange so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on
Sadly Waiting for Recess 
That first stanza resonates. Then this inside out feeling follows, and you assert yourself with the stops. I really like this one.
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Thanks!
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This one is really well done, Richard. I agree with the previous poster about the use of the word “Stop” which is from PAD too, I think. You’re getting a great start this April!
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Thanks! I got off to a start, but faltered. Trying to do some writing now, in the summer, that I couldn’t manage in April.
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