Comprehension

by Carol L. Skolnick

Q. In the story of your life, were you ever:

a. Loved to distraction?
b. In love to distraction?
c. Distracted by love?
d. All of the above?

If "a," by whom?
If "b," with whom?
If "c," why?
If "d," will you love me?

Q. Is it true that:

a. We all love a mirror?
b. We all want our mother?
c. We hunger for God?
d. In love we are doomed?

If "a," are you my reflection?
If "b," are you my mother?
If "c," may I worship you?
If "d," may I die now?

Tell me, please; I've got to know.
I have to know I'm not the only one following this story,
Because somebody has to tell me how it ends.
Somehow I've dozed off, missed the finish.
Somehow I've lost my place.

Q. If self-love is our ultimate goal, then:

a. Who needs you?
b. Who needs me?
c. How was I?
d. Is it forever?

If "a," I do.
If "b," do you?
If "c," I've had better.
If "d," I'll need a prenup.

But where is the climax, where is the denouement?
If the prince does not come,
If our mirror-mother-god remains clouded and streaked,
Can there be a happy ending,
Or does the story never cease?

Q. Will the lady-in-waiting:

a. Continue to wait until she is nothing but skeletal remains in a silken gown, crumbling to dust at slight movement or touch?
b. Murder the Queen and steal her crown, seduce the King, abduct the infanta and the dauphin, claim the royal bed and throne?
c. Accept her fate and go within to the reverberations of Om?
d. Get a better job waiting tables in some joint, scribbling notes on napkins for her novel-to-be about the characters who eat there, while having meaningless affairs and working out on weekends to the beat of techno and the point of pain, to break up the tedium, the guilt, the exquisite torture of waiting?

If "a," will you love me?
If "b," will you love me?
If "c," will you love me?
If "d," will you love me?

-- CLS
©2000 Carol L. Skolnick

Carol L. Skolnick is a humorist, essayist, marcomm writer, and solo-performance-artist wanna-be whose work has been published in The English Journal, Glamour, and The Sun: A Magazine of Ideas. Four of her personal essays will appear in upcoming volumes of the best-selling inspirational book series, Chocolate for Women, published by Simon & Schuster. Carol's articles on direct marketing have appeared at mxAprimo.com, and in DM News. Her two-character play, Hopelessly Devoted, was produced in New York City by Love Creek Productions' One-Act Festival in 1996. "Comprehension" is her first published poem.