Valentine's Day Poem by John Hartness

A Poem by John G. Hartness

Valentine’s Day was Monday, and that put everyone in the mood for love poetry. This poem by Charlotte poet and novelist John G. Hartness is certainly not your everyday love poem, but it is related to Valentine’s Day, and I love the way it brings a surprisingly serious twist to the usual Valentine’s Day fare.

Happy Valentine’s Day
by John G. Hartness

On Valentine’s Day
I sat
in an orange plastic chair
staring at the snow
through a wire-mesh window
picking at bandages and thinking that even
here
I couldn’t find a place to belong.
Until a skinny too-tall boy with brown hair
walked barefoot
over to my window,
touched the old scar on my wrist
and said We All Hurt
Here.
In that dayroom with the busted radiator
and snowdrifts crowding the windowsills,
I began to melt
and blossom.

John G. Hartness is a recovering theatre geek who likes loud music, fried pickles and cold beer. His poetry has been published or accepted online in several journals including The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, cc&d, Deuce Coupe and Truckin’. He can be found online at http://www.facebook.com/l/62bfaEzgUmhtFtHwrzjAmQP5SxA;www.johnhartness.com. His first novel, The Chosen, is an urban fantasy about saving the world, snotty archangels, gambling, tattooed street preachers, immortals with family issues, bar brawls and the consequences of our decisions. He followed up The Chosen with Hard Day’s Knight, a new twist on the vampire detective novel and the first in a planned series of five books. His next novel, Back in Black (and Blue) is due out later this year.