Come Back to Me, Dear Benjamin

Slam Prompt: Write a love letter to someone now deceased.



Come Back to Me, Dear Benjamin




I don’t feel guilty writing, you know
Because your wife will never know.
Besides, all’s moral in death-love;
She probably won’t even care.

You see, I always felt a connection
Whenever I read from your Almanack,
But the ages kept us strangely apart.
You were dead ‘ere I came around.

Yet, you have been my lightning rod,
My collector of sagacious wisdom,
First blended on the palate of your thought,
Then dripped like treasures from your pen.

You were the lens of my reason, Ben.
Your zest for living and your logical judgments
Provided bi-focals for my understanding.
By your words, I awakened safe and sane.

You were not always the ancient one.
Dear man, you stoked other fires inside me
With your Franklin, pot-bellied stove
Of ideas, insights, and wicked thrusts.

Oh, do not squander our precious time!
My love, let us rise up early today
To greet the morning’s mists,
Like turkeys gobbling the day.

I shall be your prized rattlesnake,
Rattling not in warning, but in awe.
For though I quake at your greatness,
At your side, my coil will uncurl.

So play your glass harmonica
While I slip into something cozy.
Then permit me to sit at your feet,
Enraptured by the silver of your quips.

Awaken now from death’s door,
My dear, sweet precious one.
Let the centuries fade away,
As we pursue collective harmony.



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P.S. I won't point out all the words that contain double meanings within this piece. Do some research on Bejamin Franklin, and you will probably spot them. He was a brilliant man, well deserving of this tribute.

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