Borrowing

[Doreen Peri]

Could I borrow your heart, borrow your soul,
borrow a part of your memories? Could I borrow
the sorrow you bled in the tears from your eyes,
the ceremonial extremities, frozen, stolen, unable
to bend, the way you misspent your time, the crimes
you didn't mean to commit? Can I borrow the moments
when you were able to admit your mistakes? What would
it take to borrow from you? Can I borrow what is overdue?
Can I borrow what is new and never yet used? Do you feel
abused by my request? If so, I'm quite sorry. That isn't my
intent. Can I borrow your resentments, your presence, your
events on the calendar you keep? Can I borrow the sound
of your breathing when you sleep as it creeps into my ear?
What can I borrow? Anything? I promise to return it when I can.
Can I borrow your thens and theres and whens and wants
and taunts of dreams that seem unreachable?
I will pay you interest. I promise. This is my promissory note.
Can I borrow what you promised you would have written or wrote?
I can promise you this. I will lend you anything I have ever had or
still have and lend it to you again and if you never pay it back,
I don't care. I'm sorry to ask to borrow a thing but please bring
me up in your thoughts when you're caught in a need.
You can borrow anything I have to plead with the present case
and if you need something from me which I don't own,
I will borrow it for you to lend it to you, then give it to you,
not as a loan, but as a treasure. Please don't lend me anything again
and if I must re-begin this verse, let it be a curse on my soul.
Nothing borrowed is nothing owed.
You will never need to repay.
And I, the dismal daughter of a fray
of fabric torn, mourn that I would owe a penny.
I hope I would never owe you any
thing but love. Could I borrow your heart
for just one fraction of a minute, a second perhaps?
Please not allow the lapse of my reasoning to cause you
to fret about the agreement since there is none.
I lend you myself completely.
No! I give you all I am neatly
wrapped in a silk scarf clutched to your chest,
the rest of me lingering beneath.

-dp.10.23.2013

[revolutionrabbit]

I would lend you my four chambered heart
but its been run over a thousand times
like a deer caught in the head lights
that's right I feel like on the road kill
I would lend you my soul but its got a hole
in it that you could drive a train through
I never tried to fill it with cocaine
but I did try to fill it up with whiskey
I would lend you my brain but its borrowed
from all the books I have ever read
I'm not brain dead because it feels like
somebody removed it in a secret operation
and kicked it over the moon
and then put it back again when I was dreaming
I would lend you my dreams but they seem like
they belong to somebody else, some other place
I would lend you my words because that is all I have left
to tell you how much I love you and adore you
but since I my love has been stolen from the poet
I can only make up words that come from nowhere
and I don't even know where nowhere is
I was looking for the hawk shop of my feelings
where I put my pain on a dusty shelve with a tag
that tells me when my numbers are up
I would give you the moon so you could roll it around
like a night we once met in this flesh
but that too was given to
us on consignment
and we must beg, cheat and steal for the rest of the scraps
I would lend you my luck but it ran out
in this last game of chance
shall we dance?

[the mingo]

It snowed this morning - I lend you both that

[sweetwater]

Perhaps surprisingly, given the importance of conformity as a theoretical construct in social psychology and the profound implications of not paying for overdue notices at the library, has in relation to not conforming to social norms ...

[judih]

an empty sac i offer
fill it up with what you will
and know it's yours

[dadio]

To borrow would indicate the return(at least in theory) of said requested heart, love etc. To give does not imply any return(although might be wanted). Love how you write Doreen. More of your poems please.

[zero_hero]

friendship to loan
if I can borrow some of your time
I have misspent mine

brilliant poem doreen, so happy to see you posting here again.

[Arcadia]

so beautiful poem, doreen!!!!!!!! I can feel you saying that!!!!!!!!