Love Poem: Who Cheers the Cheerleader?
Matthew Bailey Avatar
Written by: Matthew Bailey

Who Cheers the Cheerleader?

To figure you out holistically, 
I need to wade the waters cautiously
A snap of a band on my wrist 
Every time I think of this 
I had my fifteen minutes of fame 
When you needed a ride home 
And every traffic light enticed me to drive slow 
And that's another snap of the band on my wrist 
Every time I think of this 
 
Related with no obvious connection
I had my fifteen minutes of fame
When I finally caught you on the phone 
In the midst of a winning coin flip 
Between you hanging on the line or hanging up out of shame 
Were you biting your tongue too?
My confessions were dancing on my gums like cocaine 

My mouth is my downfall
I look around and see a world with nothing worth liking,
I turn my head and see no breath worth taking 
I shrug, I don't see a sober moment worth enduring
I get around, and meet no presence worth appeasing
I could never analyze her thought process
So naive to think I knew so much more about her
Secret whispers so salacious 
with a skill for turning the wrong shoulders 
There's nothing left of this land to govern
Watch me drift away, 
Then watch me cling onto this partition 
Effortlessly but hollowly,
This isn't a solo vacation on a drifting island,
This is a subconscious manifestation of my perdition 

A sinking rabbit hole in winter;
If only the grooves in my brain could self contain in the form of zippers 
I look around, I see no remaining reasons worth conjuring
I lift my head and see no foreign territory worth discovering 
I melt the frost from my shoulder, 
To reach back out after evading you comfortably 
But the emotional wreckage aside, 
What kills me to say,
is sometimes I feel it's where I'm meant to be 
But this isn't me 
I see the planets as my glowing gallons of self control,
But only hollowly

43 snaps of the band on my wrist
When I think of this 
But process for a second why it could be, 
That I'm not the one haunted by the spirit of my contrition
This feels like solitary solidarity!
This is an external manifestation of my idea of perdition