Helga Pataki Literature

Helga Pataki (poem)
Tiana Hennings

Ugh, Arnold.
His stupid your ideas,
how dumb his face looks when he
peers down our garbage-infested hallway.
How I want to wipe that pleasant look off his face.
I hate him.
And yet…
I love him.

Arnold, how your existence is the first of my desires
and my heart only seeks out the way you instill my fires.
It’s agonizing you never notice my cries at the locker
as I slam down my stalker.
You never feel my presence
when I scream your name to the heavens.
We don’t even hold families near,
but I only want to hold you, dear.
The way your golden head comes from the gods,
how us together could create the odds
of us ending up in a neverland paradise,
a land of glorious days that will always clearly suffice.
How you make everything in my world melt,
how my ice capsules must handle what is dealt.
The only way to ever be given what I want, what I need most
is to be there when there’s no one left from here to the coast.
Someday I will break through the sharpened glass of fear;
fight for our days together to be near.
Some days I’m hopeful.
Some days everything feels impossible.
I need to fight to speak the truth.
I know I need to fight
to be with you.