Rom-Coms That Raised Me
how movies create some illusions (and maybe delusions)
Help me turn writing into a career and a community.
Pay Sub to support work/productions and create stages, writer workshops and Live series connecting the Stack.
Get custom content, chat access, and long-forms back or just subscribe.
Can’t afford full price? Get a Summer Love discount.
Can’t commit to subbing? Buy me a little something, purchase prints or take a workshop with me.
Romantic Comedies. We all have our own list of faves. All still waiting around for Ryan Gosling to run into the airport and stop us form getting on that flight. We technically know these grand gestures and epic romances won’t happen, but we can’t help but want it.
We’ve been groomed by a million movies to live in a fantasy world selling rampant commercialism, obsessive love and problematic life lessons. This poem is part homage to romcoms and part reality check.
Rom-Com
It started young,
the movie obsession,
naively thinking every film
would have real-life reflections.
Got plot-hooked on Now & Then,
movies a lifelong friend,
a place where shy girls in Sixteen Candles
or Grease didn’t hide with a book,
but got cool guys looking,
riding through Fast Times at Ridgemont High,
all those bad boys on my brain,
elder millennial sigh anytime I hear their name.
Wishing he’d say She’s All That about me,
giving me a yes instead of a Definitely, Maybe.
Maybe with a makeover and a cool friend,
the Mean Girls could see me as one of them,
and not just another Corpse Bride for Edward Scissorhands.
Dirty Dancing my way to prom with a Clueless boy,
who just want to get his Juno in my Lady Bird,
so he can tell the other guys about trying my American Pie.
The movies let me know How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,
just act like you’re in Love Actually when
all they want is some Sex and the City.
And they’ll find another Pretty Woman
who is okay with situationships for a price,
as long as she gets Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that guy was real nice.
After all, your 20s are there for being Moonstruck
by Crazy, Stupid, Love. only meant to last 500 Days of Summer cause his manic pixie dreams fades fast.
Meanwhile you’re still in love and
in La La Land and have no idea what it’s
like to be a widower in Sleepless in Seattle,
or a divorcee in When Harry Met Sally... your thirties still an alternate reality.
This Is 40 is not even in the queue yet,
You have your 30s still to regret,
every time you played Miss Congeniality,
to a man just looking for Showgirls.
Afraid to slip and end up a Mamma Mia!
before you were done having fun.
You got excited when You Got Mail,
but The Proposal was actually a scary
Being Bridesmaids at My Best Friend’s Wedding, proved that real love gets real hairy.
No, The Notebook doesn’t play in the big city.
You think you can Say Anything, with boombox in hand, but The Break-Up happens and you have no cheap apartment and no man.
There are no reunions, grand gestures,
airport runs, or surprise weddings to follow.
Every film promise proves exceptionally hollow, an illusion, delusion, foolish fever dream,
an IRL happy ending is harder than it seems.
To All the Boys I’ve Ever Loved that way,
I think the movies led me astray.
About Mila
I’m Mila. A mother of two. A Creative Director by a day, a writer of plays, poetry, films and fiction every spare moment I can find. My dream at this not so young age is to make writing and teaching of writing not just my creative life but my working life. Every sub and paid sub helps me get there.
My paid subs get personal custom pieces, long forms and chat posting access.
Can’t afford full price? Get half off in June.
Want goodies from me & the Coven? Printed pieces, workshops etc.
A few custom pieces I’ve created for my Paid Subscribers. Put a lot of love in these to make them truly special for each person.
She Was Her Own Hero
Help me produce more indie plays, films, fiction and poetry and create a stage and community for other artists.
What Trees See
Help me produce more indie plays, films, fiction and poetry and create a stage and community for other artists.
She Rages
So many good ones in here! How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is hands-down, my favorite though!
Ryan Gosling has a lot to answer for here. Rom-coms really had us waiting for airport runs while quietly skipping rent, bad timing, and the man who absolutely was not coming back... and yes, I still want one stupid grand gesture. Let me keep one delusion.