Get to Know Me First (A woman’s challenge to a suitor).
By Josephine Ansumana
I
How can you call me “darling, sweetheart dearest...”
Or Say you love me if you have never met the real me?
How can you love some one you do not know
When all you have seen is my picture ‘Idée.”
Before you conclude what you feel is love,
I think you should really take your time
And try to get to know the real me.
Not just the nice smiling mysterious me,
Not the me in that picture posing at my best
But that other woman, the real me at my very worst.
II
Get to know me when I am most annoying
Disagreeable, obnoxious and cranky
Get to know me at that time of the month
When I go through my usual cycle
And I am moody, snappy, weepy and whimpering and whiny
And I change my mind as often as my mood
swings.
III
Get to know me when I think I have been conned,
Made a fool of, gravely wronged and unfairly treated
Misused and insulted, exploited and abused
And I am on the war path ready for battle.
Get to know me when I am emotionally down,
Challenged, tortured and tormented, and all
I want to do is to crawl into bed and cry my eyes out.
IV
Get to know me when I am anxious and frantic
Passionately engaged in my writing,
As rewrites and timelines abound
When my “Muse” beckons and I must obey
When I have time for nothing and no one
Except my computer keyboard and my mouse
And I answer all of your questions in monosyllables.
V
Get to know me when I sit up all night,
Without realizing that another human being exists
Or moves around the house in the bedroom right next to the study.
Get to know me when you wake up at six in the morning,
And I say “Good night” to you, instead of “Good morning.”
Because that is just the time I want to catch some sleep.
Then I get up after only three or four hours of sleep
And sit at my computer again till the very next morning.
VI
When you get to know me in all of these different phases
And you still do not get angry, ignored or frustrated,
And you think you can put up with all of my shortcomings,
Idiosyncrasies, foibles and flaws and do not feel the urgent urge
To bash my head against the wall, if you can still smile at me,
Laugh with me, and want to be with me in spite of myself
Then and only then will I truly believe, when you say you love me.
Until then, I will just take you at face value with a pinch of salt.
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