the first draft

the first draft is really
what you want to say,
but then you let it sit for awhile.
you sleep on it
you rise early and dive back in.
i'm close you think, but not quite.
the second draft is more
poetic, you find words that
you'd never use and prop
them in. you manipulate a rhyme
or two, you try to be more obscure.
you put in the word love.
you stare at it for a while,
shaking your head, then move on,
you come back again
that night with a drink in hand
and sigh.
in the third draft you take
the last stanza
and make it your first.
you change the title. you take
out the word love
and put in the word adore.
you adjust commas,
and punctuation. you wonder if
anyone will understand what you've
said, pffft. so what.
you read it over and over.
it makes no sense. you hate it.
you go back to the first draft.
it's really what you
want to say.