Valentine

What men/this guy want/s,

I believe, even though I'm still just a teenager, that I have discovered some of the things men want from in a relationship with a woman.

First, and most basically, we want someone to lean on. Life's a battle,
and no battle goes on without support. When stuff gets bad, guys need someone (like a field surgeon) to tell them that things are going to be all right, that no challenge is too much for us.

Which leads to the next thing we want. Guys want someone to appreciate them. For some reason, we need tangible feedback that, yea, even though a game of foosball isn't comparable to the super bowl, we've done something worthwhile. Bowl a strike, good job. Lift something heavy, so strong! Kill a spider, my hero! It feels good to know that your daily efforts aren't for nothing.

So we want someone who understands us, whether we understand that concept or not. Breakthroughs happen when something never heard of is supported. I'm thinking maybe half of all the crazy people who turned out to be geniuses we're told otherwise by their wives. Behind every great man is a great woman and all that.

Which means that next, men want a respectable woman. Even though the cheap and risque girls of our fancy are tempting, men ultimately know in the end that all of that skin is just a facade for someone's insecurity. The term trophy wife doesn't mean a girl who makes a man's friends salivate. What men really want deep down is someone they can always brag about, always show off no matter what, someone with class. The term beauty is on the inside just doesn't quite say it. Men want a woman they can be proud of on more than just a physical level.

And that means lastly, we want loyalty. Loyalty just about sums up all the other parts of what men want, but there's just something incomplete with the whole explanation if loyalty isn't included. I'm not talking about the way a dog or some other pet is loyal. I'm talking about allegiance. Undying faithfulness, compassion, patience, understanding, and necessity for us. We need someone who will stand by us even when things get tough or we screw up pretty bad. We want someone to be right there through all that stands in our way. We want a friend.

All of these things I have found to be fundamentally universal among men. Whether some of us realize it or not, these are the most basic desires in our souls about women. And all of these wants come with the understanding that women want things too, and on that subject, I believe it is safe to say I am mostly in the dark.

Chemistry

If the hardest things to accept,
are just the hypothetical;
then just why am I so inept,
at the plain and rhetorical?

Take a stone and cast it,
the ripples cast a shadow too.
But if the sky was never lit,
the ripples would cast down on you.

Can you hear the grass growing?
Can you even see it happen?
The worst part of all is knowing
this ship set sail without a captain.

The brain runs while the fridge hums,
thinking on the next move to make.
Then the answer finally comes,
and meets the frigid reality.

Words don't and won't explain confusion,
No one was worse off than those two.
But I'll stop a second for the intrusion,
if I have the time for clues.

Never close the mouth and bolt the mind,
and no one will take your words for truth.
Don't mind your mind falling behind,
like cracked ideas falling off a rotten wisdom tooth.

You knock and there's no one to answer,
so you kick the door down and shout:
"What is this ignorant cancer,
and which way in here is out?"

Just remember you were warned,
with a cherry on top of a pretty please:
the early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Don't be disappointed much,
the mind can't run forever.
And once it comes back for lunch,
we'll learn some chemistry together.

So just close the door and sit down,
we'll wait here together.
When my mind comes back to town,
maybe things will get better.

Go ahead,James, sip the tea.
Pick up your paper and read.
I promise that its all free.
I'll be right here like a weed.

But while we're here,
could you please lend me your ear,
lately I've been wondering things,
and I'd like to know what you bring.

You see Whiz, you're here in my skull,
and I know to you it looks dull.
So I have to wonder, and wonder I will,
Just what is it you want while we sit still?

Because at this point I can not lie,
I'd take a bullet for you and die.
But I have to wonder if its for what I know,
or to go ahead and lie down below?

As I swim inside the goo left in my brain,
and you continue to read through the stains,
I look for the end of this trial,
and I wonder if its all worthwhile?

You know, we can beat all odds you say.
well yes even the mad king had his day.
But two hundred and ninety nine died,
and one lived to tell how he tried.

Maybe that's it, maybe we're all just mad.
God knows there once was a chance I had.
But that was long ago, I was a young fool,
and look at me now, swimming in this pool.

Is it really just that hard to take,
or is it just the point that you're trying to make?
Things you wrote down, the very things we saw,
are the things we piece together like jigsaw.

But sip your coffee James,
and we'll hold the names.
When this is all said and done too,
I'll wish I'd stopped in for lunch with you.