Saturday, September 7, 2024

that darn bottle of wine June 20, 2012

 



 I left the bottle of wine 

on her desk as a token,

 feeling guilty for not having

 gone out for the drink she wanted,

I told her I would leave it, 

thinking she would think of it 

as an apology for all that

 had gone wrong to this point,

 the next step in what 

I thought of as a thaw

 (she had asked advice before last weekend and though she did not need it, I gave it,)

 and assured our lives were back on track

 to normalcy, 

an idea that came to an abrupt end 

when she called to ask

 if I had left it, 

and later, put the bottle back

 on my cubby hole of a desk,

 a dark statement to the dark look

 she ‘d given me over the meeting table,

 so cold it could have chilled the wind 

she did not want, 

and I felt at a loss as what to say or do, 

some dark clouds hovering over me,

following wherever I go, 

sad, and thick with foreboding 

as I felt the vacancy in me 

no mere wine could fill, 

empty, lost, stirred up like

 old ashes to a fire no longer

 capable of being reignited, 

yet burning deeply inside me nonetheless.


email to Al Sullivan

No comments:

Post a Comment