Timeless Love
What would you think if I begged
you to be the Eurydice to my Orpheus
and swore you wouldn’t have to wait
as long as Penelope for my return?
And I would return, unlike John Keats
to his Fanny, I’m too old to die young.
How many proposals would you reject
like Maud Gonne, leaving me bereft?
But you’re a twenty-first century girl,
these references mean nothing
so I’ll draw you like Jack did Rose,
though with words instead of charcoal.
I’ll feel like the king of the world,
holding you, at the bow, as you fly.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
Love the last line “I’ll feel like the king of the world,
holding you, at the bow, as you fly.”
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Thanks. That last couplet went through lots of revisions. Glad the final one worked.
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👍
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You’ve worked this out well.
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Thanks to your feedback at our workshop.
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