Experiencing “White Ferrari”

Whenever I feel lost, which has been feeling like a lot nowadays, one of my favorite songs to listen to is "White Ferrari" by Frank Ocean, so I chose it today for my "Experiencing Poetry." This is the song:

White Ferrari

Frank Ocean

Bad luck to talk on these rides

Mind on the road, your dilated eyes

Watch the clouds float, white Ferrari

Had a good time

(Sweet 16, how was I supposed to know anything?)

I let you out at Central

I didn't care to state the plain

Kept my mouth closed

We're both so familiar

White Ferrari, good times

Stick by me, close by me

You were fine

You were fine here

That's just a slow body

You left when I forgot to speak

So I text to speech, lesser speeds

Texas speed, yes

Basic takes its toll on me,

Eventually, eventually, yes

Ah, on me eventually, eventually, yes

I care for you still and I will forever

That was my part of the deal, honest

We got so familiar

Spending each day of the year, White Ferrari

Good times

In this life, life

In this life, life

One too many years

Some tattooed eyelids on a facelift

Mind over matter is magic

I do magic

If you think about it it'll be over in no time

And that's life

I'm sure we're taller in another dimension

You say we're small and not worth the mention

You're tired of movin', your body's achin'

We could vacay, there's places to go

Clearly this isn't all that there is

Can't take what's been given

But we're so okay here, we're doing fine

Primal and naked

You dream of walls that hold us imprisoned

It's just a skull, least that's what they call it

And we're free to roam

I've never fallen in love, but I think about love a lot and far more than I'd like to, so I can understand the place the speaker comes from when he laments about his unrequited love for the person he’s speaking to.

A line that always stands out to me is “I'm sure we're taller in another dimension / You say we're small and not worth the mention.” If there was love that was once reciprocated between the speaker and the person he’s talking to, then it’s fizzled out due to diverging wants. Similarly, I’m constantly living in a state of regret over the disparity that exists between who I am and who I wish I was. My heart wants one thing, but my mind is telling me another, and constantly needing to reconcile the two is tiring.

"White Ferrari" is a song about love, but I don’t see it as a love song, but as one more about growing up — as someone trying to piece together deeply profound experiences to understand their place in the world — which is why it still resonates with me.

Lastly, here's my (bad) attempt at a short poem that tries to tie in some of the language in the song and is also about growing up, but more specific to me:

should’ve kept the stories i wrote

in bundled fits by nightlight

instead of crumbling them up,

throwing them away like nothing

but how was i to know better

(seven-years-old and already a perfectionist?)

i’m sure in another life

i wouldn’t have spent so long trying to contain what was out of my control

and i’m sure in another life

i would be able to forgive myself for what i didn’t know.

I love this song so much, and I hope that now you can also enjoy it a little bit more.💌