"What They Say About the Tin Man"

By: Darlina Marie Magallanes

Venus said his tongue would hang out of his head like a hot dog’s.
Cleopatra said to always keep your chin up because your face looks fat when you look down.
Helen said you must revisit the past to improve what you’re presently selling.
Aphrodite said to look your best all the time because he might just be a cheater.
Mary said you have many virginities so gain knowledge with each that you lose.
Mona Lisa said not to lose the thrill in your pill because it’s smiling that creates the best kind of wrinkles.
Juliet said not kill yourself over the first, second or any after because there is always someone else to die for.
Dido said the sword’s sharpness cuts deeper in you than it does in him.
Eve said not to be eluded by the will of the glove because no matter how carnal we think we are we’re all just looking for love.
But whoever said, “It is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all,” forgot to mention the part of yourself you lose with that abandonment.
The battle against bitterness and depression thrusts on and every morning you wake up and fight the good fight.
No one said the balance you must maintain to keep a level head would be effortless.
The beam is but a steel piece of thread and we are all intoxicated elephants clumsily craving a line dance.
They say you’re an idiot because you opened up your heart to love him the way people used to back when the world was made of dirt and happiness was not measured by your fat percentage.
The whole world calls you a fool because you saw something in him that no one else saw.
That for a moment you thought he could be human.
You lay awake at night wondering if it was all in your head.
Trying to figure out if what you saw was never there.
When it comes to love, the difference between a man and a woman is that no matter how many times a woman falls. She will climb back up on the horse, with broken bones and all. But a man would rather stay alone, wounded, on the ground where he is safe.
He will justify what makes him lie
Shine his rust and watch you cry
Count the ships that pass him by
He doesn’t mind
That he’ll never make the time
To find the heart his mother gave him.
Don’t let it kill you angel.
He always loved you even if he never admits it.
Even if he chooses to be emotionally constipated for the rest of his life what you thought you saw in him was not a figment of your imagination.