I am no Lolita | Teen Ink

I am no Lolita

October 15, 2009
By oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
37 articles 4 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;We are born with two incurable diseases -- life, from which we die; and hope, which says maybe death isn&rsquo;t the end.&quot;<br /> - Andrew Greeley


Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue
taking a trip of three steps
down to the palate to tap,
at three,
on the teeth.
Lo. Lee. Ta.

It's not my name.
Not my name.
So don't write it
in all your hopeful letters,
filled with dreams
meant to entice, to entangle --
I know you,
Humbert.
I know you mean to make me ill
with secrecy
and all your faux-innocent lollipop fantasies,
but you will not pick up the story
where he left off.
You are both the same in my mind,
telling me everything you want so desperately
to believe,
and the little girl he left
with her hands full of threats and broken things
loves the way you need her --
she is both the disease
and the antidote.
But she is only a silly little ghost,
sent away to haunt his dreams
when I had to say
that I felt nothing.
No.
Nonono.
Cynically speaking,
I already have one life on my conscience --
I don't think I could handle another.

The author's comments:
The lines in the beginning are from Nabokiv's Lolita.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 5 comments.


on Jan. 11 2012 at 4:13 pm
oracle-of-nonsense PLATINUM, Winnabow, North Carolina
37 articles 4 photos 61 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;We are born with two incurable diseases -- life, from which we die; and hope, which says maybe death isn&rsquo;t the end.&quot;<br /> - Andrew Greeley

There is definitely some real life experience behind this one.

spina17 said...
on Jan. 11 2012 at 9:37 am
spina17, Tunnel Hill, Georgia
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
&quot;I&#039;ll make it to the moon if I have to crawl...&quot; - Red Hot Chili Peppers<br /> &quot;Sometimes pretty words just aren&#039;t enough.&quot; - Ruben Ramirez

wow, it's everything i wanted to say and should've said long ago. any real life experience behind the words of this poem? very talented poem!

on Apr. 18 2011 at 8:52 pm
WithEyesWideOpen BRONZE, Wayne, Pennsylvania
2 articles 22 photos 240 comments

Favorite Quote:
You may say I&#039;m a dreamer, but I&#039;m not the only one.

this is a pretty deep book & I think you did a great job capturing that in this poem !

Aderes47 GOLD said...
on Apr. 18 2011 at 4:54 pm
Aderes47 GOLD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 897 comments

Favorite Quote:
You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. <br /> Henry Drummond

I love this poem!!

But at the same time, I don't understand it at all!


on Apr. 22 2010 at 10:27 am
MarielAntoinette BRONZE, Charlottesville, Virginia
3 articles 2 photos 20 comments

"Hands full of threats and broken things"

Fabulous. Is the speaker Dolores, the one who "loves the way you need her", or is it not Dolores but someone else? Still, that ambiguity is beautiful.