Emeralds for a Diamond Girl

That was just him though
He was always doing too much

Coming to me with diamonds

And I’d say--

Baby, you know my birthstone

I’m an emerald

Like the city

I thought if I made a little joke about it

He’d see that I was only kidding

And that I wasn’t trying

To make him feel bad

But he’d sulk no matter what
Even if you gave him

All the love you had

He’d find a way to turn it

Into teardrops

Everything with him

Was about what could be bought

And what you could put a bow on

I told him that gifts never meant much to me

Just more stuff you had to carry around with you

And throw away when you moved

Moved, he’d say, Where you moving to?

And I’d tell him

That moving wasn’t something you planned

That only real adults

Like my mom and dad

Planned to move

And people like me--

Forever lost girls

Of the High Plains

And Low Canyons

--We just up and left

He didn’t like that very much

And I can see why

He wanted me to be a diamond girl

In fact, he busted his ass

His whole life

Thinking that one day

He was going

To fall in love with a diamond girl

And when he did

He damn well better be able

To afford to keep her

Then he meets me

And what was all that hard work for?

Me with my cup of chicken noodle soup

And some pulled-up weeds

In a vase on my kitchen table

I bought the vase from a yard sale

And the weeds I pulled

From outside a Wendy’s

Down the road from my house

He never wanted to fall

For a girl like me

But there he was

Sleeping in my bed

And opening boxes

On one knee

With diamond rings in them

I wasn’t trying to say

The ring was ugly

I mean, it was ugly

But I find most jewelry

To be pretty gauche

If I’m being honest about it

There’s just things you can wear

When you’re one kind of person

And things you can’t

When you’re another

I like to keep my hands clear

And my neck free of baubles

Usually when somebody pops the question

That means one of those unplanned moves

Is on the way

But…

This time I hung around

Thought maybe I could change him

The same way he was trying to change me

Guess how that worked out?

Well, joke’s on you

It worked out pretty well

Turns out it’s not that hard

To transform a diamond boy

Into a chicken noodle soup man

That’s what I got now

He still acts like a stuffed shirt

Every so often

But I get to be me

All the time

So I don’t complain

See?

Not everything has to end in tears

I’ve been telling my man that

For years now

And maybe one of these days

He’ll believe me