A Valentine's Story

A Valentine's Story

the valentine heart,
once lovingly selected,
fell to the subway's grate
then blew into the street
where it was nearly run over by a passing cab
which sent it skipping toward the rear axle of a bus
that nicked it with a kick that shot it back to the curb
on the opposite side of the street.

It nearly made it.
Till it was stabbed to death by a street cleaner's prong:
on which it sat stacked with candy wrappers, cigarette butts all
stuck to a wad of spat out gum

before the sanitation worker, with the glove
he purchased to protect himself
from the spit-upon trash he once touched,

with thumb and index finger removed the paper heart
candy wrappers, cigarette butts and gum from his poker's tine
and tossed it all into a respectable receptacle
picked clean of cans worth dime
deposits

and there it waited for a truck to take it for a ride
to the dump where it would spend the rest of its life
in a landfill, an eternity

or until
it is found by archaeologists in some future century
who will carefully remove it
catalog it
and find a place for it
behind glass in a museum
for visitors to view
and think upon it

such is a valentine's story

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• valentine's
• story
• heart
• james
• carew
• xavejamesgrey
• poem
• poetry
• spoken
• word
• drama

[GilesConradWatson]

Why am I reminded of the story of the Little Tin Soldier, I wonder? Must be all that very realistic bad luck! I wonder what archaeologists from thousands of years into the future would make of a valentine... would they understand it at all? And do our archaeologists really have any idea what cave paintings were really all about?

[teamdeaf]

Well done, James. This is a wonderfuly funny, unsentimental Valentine's Day story. I love it!

[Poemsapennyeach]

Clever Tale....I , the sceptic...think the best place for a Valentine Card...is in the Garbage !! But then...should a knight in White Armour send me one....who knows ....? I might even swoon....

[tinySpectacle]

Love this video. And the story of the misadventure and final resting place of this card is such an apt metaphor for love!

[Idlinfarm]

Sheer delight, this tale, implying to my mind-----don't look for love behind a glass case in a museum if you want it unsullied.

[keanghiero]

Nice

5*

All the best

Kean

[andrewnorris1]

That's quite a story, I am sure love itself too must suffer such an ordeal before it can be finally appreciated, but let us not stick it behind glass and consign it to a museum of irrelevant emotions just yet. Clever and inventive story. I am so impressed that you always seem to find just the right picture.

[Caspar33]

Nice one. Happens all the time. I can see Wall-E not knowing what it is or where to stash it.