He is Mr. Perfect.
He says you are beautiful
and that you are the only one.
He makes so much time for you that he doesn’t have a job.
He is such a good listener;
he eavesdrops on all of your conversations.
He is so kind, that he wouldn’t raise a fist
even if some drunk frat boy was physically pouring
a liquid roofie down your throat.
He says that he supports world peace that much.
He helps you go shopping.
Sometimes, he tries on that dress
that makes you feel fat
just so he understands.
He owns a boat, a plane, a hot air balloon,
and all of the maxed out credit cards a girl could ask for.
He is so smart that he doesn’t admit when he’s wrong.
He is the life of every party… he loves Tupperware that much.
He is so sensitive that he needs your Midol
more than you, but his dick is so big
that he passes out when he gets an erection.
He shaves his testes, but he buys his own band-aids.
He has connections and gets you
into every concert for free,
as long as you meet the guitar player.
He enjoys your company so much.
He would help you blow the guitar player, if he could.
Your mother loves him.
He goes to church with her.
He is so good with animals, but you don’t know
what he does when he’s alone with them…
He owns a necktie, with paisleys .
Yet, you put up with him.
He is Mr. Perfect.
It is no wonder that he says that you are beautiful
and that you are the only one.
From: Chainsawsmoking: Poems Wrapped in Cellophane
Summary
“When You Said I Wasn’t Perfect, You Were Right.” by Aaron Hopkins-Johnson is a poem centered on love and relationships, family, music. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
Analysis
Voice
The poem uses direct address, creating an intimate and sometimes confrontational relationship with its subject.
Style and form
The poem is free verse with image-led movement. The poem moves by accumulation: images, references, and tonal turns build on one another, so meaning emerges from their relationships as much as from narrative sequence.
Themes and imagery
Its strongest thematic currents include love and relationships, family, music, travel and movement. Concrete images give those abstractions physical weight, while changes in diction and pace keep the poem from settling into a single emotional register.
Reading the poem
A productive way to read “When You Said I Wasn’t Perfect, You Were Right.” is to watch how its images change function as the poem progresses. Details that initially establish scene or memory become emotional evidence. The result is a poem whose argument is carried through association, rhythm, and image as much as through explicit statement.
Explore this poem
Source & rights
Source: Chainsawsmoking: Poems Wrapped in Cellophane (Lawn Gnome Publishing, 2016)
Rights: © 2016 Lawn Gnome Publishing. All rights reserved.