Unrequited Love Cliches At Valentine

I came not with clenched fists
I came with open palms
I came wearing my heart on my sleeves
I came with floodgates to my heart wide open
But you closed the spillways to your mind
You built a dam across the autobahn
Indeed a roadblock was mounted
On your chest at the gate to your heart
I banged on the stone door to your hardened heart
My deluge of love entreaties failed to wow you
And seep through your impregnable façade
You developed butterflies in your tummy
And suddenly developed cold feet
You kept me at bay on tenterhooks
Giving me a wide berth as if I was a suicide bomber
Your ears were enormously plugged with wax
You looked at me in askance through tainted glasses
And your skin developed goose pimples at my approach
Your nostrils smelt a rat and kept running
Yet I came with my heart wide open and
Grinning from ear to ear, awash with pregnant love,
To seek unalloyed friendship
Yet you gave me the cold shoulder and a cold treat
My heart missed a beat in the cold heat
Should I beat a retreat
Indeed, while I rode a lowly ass
You perched your arse on a high horse
Or was it a gangling giraffe or cameleopard
I guess my gesticulations and articulations were infra dig
We were all talking through our hats
On different wavelengths and frequencies
At different vibes and altitudes
Even then, with the right attitudes
The communication gap wouldn’t have been that amplitude
Or have I been gaffing
Did I hear a sneer or a guffaw
Ride out the storm and descend from
Your high perch
We can be at par as old pals to spar
Our friendship has come this far
From days yawning into the past
Into the precincts of the very present
Relax, we have in deed travelled far
My Ghanaian fair and comely lady
Don’t be adamantine, seeing you are my Valentine,
A season seasoned for love calisthenics
And unbundling tangled hearts filled with love agony

By Kwesi Sakyi 8th February 2011