I want to tell you,
I want to tell you
But I don’t know how.
Please if I tell you,
Promise me
You won’t leave me now.
It’s a simple phrase to say
Don’t let me lead you astray.
But it won’t make you
See as I see
Hear as I hear
My words will fall like the lame
Don’t tell me something different
We cannot feel the same.
It’s not your fault,
There’s nothing broken.
I don’t know what to say
Because I’m searching for a way
To make you see as I see
Hear as I hear
Fix you so you’ll walk
This lonely path with me.
But there’s nothing to fix,
There’s nothing broken.
So I sit with shut lips,
And I grasp for words far above me.
I want to tell you.
I would tell you,
If I only knew how.
This poem takes its first line from the Beatles’ song “I Want to Tell You” which is about an inability to communicate. This poem continues the theme with a narrator who is impotent in the presence of the subject. It is purposefully written in a vague manner to ease empathy with the narrator’s solitude, but also provide space for open interpretation. The narrator is lonely because of his/her inability to connect with a person of another sexual orientation, superficially on a romantic level, but also on a deeper, empathetic level. This is not stated however, to avoid advocating the stereotype that LGBTQ+ people’s problems solely arise from their sexual identity.
Tyler Kingston, Contributor
