We’ve all heard the grizzly tales of the Craigslist killer. We know that the person on the other end of the ad could be entirely creepy. I try to always bring an intimidating friend along if I’m going to retrieve a free Craigslist item. But what if the person behind a Craigslist post was not only NOT a murderer, but also a sensitive poet?
Enter the missed connections section of Craigslist. Here, people post small descriptions of their encounters with attractive strangers, in hopes of finding them and, well, connecting. Most people stick to the bare descriptions and most necessary details of their love found in Starbucks or on the subway, but recently, someone got a little more creative.
Below are two poems posted in the missed connections section of the New York area Craigslist, verbatim, save a few stanza breaks. Are you the muse for these tiny flashes of poetic inspiration?
Central Park Liberty
You overtook my stride
approaching the lakehouse
at Central Park this evening.
I thought you were
sensually intelligent,
exquisitely erotic
and spiritually liberated.
While the cops stopped you
from making a spectacle of yourself,
to me, I thought
there was no greater tribute to beauty,
liberation and bold innocence than you.
Perhaps it was just the sweltering heat
that prompted you,
but you prompted in me
my own sweltering heat
longing for the right words to say
at that moment in that silent
side by side momentary
splendor of you.
I cheated myself
from seizing that moment,
but I hope to find it again
with you.
Write me and find me
as I find in you
a new liberation
we are both longing
to express
without judgment or repression,
that is simply perfect
in its mutuality and discovery.
I await you.
Arise and I shall arise,
be my sweet July jasmine
perfuming my mental sky
as I dream of you tonight.
The Company, Carousel, Bowling
We were at all the same places on Sunday.
It was incredibly humid
and you had pink top and jeans.
I was in the tank top and shorts
with my little daughter.
You had yours.
We should have talked…
but you had the bodyguard
and attention.
I give this a 1 in about 2 billion chance.
There’s an easy way
to let me know it is you.
(Text courtesy of Craigslist, image courtesy of the Concord Insider)