After He Left

 

After He Left

After he left I sat there staring at the floor

Contemplating something he had said in passing

Over the filet mignon and strawberry Kool-Aid (Don't ask)

(Well, alright, the cat broke the wine bottle and...oh, never mind)

It wasn't so much what he had said but how he had said it.

The candle has burned out, he observed

And sighed that little "Niles Crain" sigh that I loved

And detested at the same time

Well, I had noticed that we were sitting in the dark

But hadn't noticed why, you see.

Just thought to myself:  Did the sun die?

And wasn't it alive when we sat down to eat?

Such a long meal. Such a looong boring meal

I  had planned to tell him it was over

(The relationship, not the meal.)

But in all the chaos of the broken wine bottle

And the subsequent Kool-Aid offering and sneers

Pointed in my direction, I was momentarily undone

And when I had found my voice, it was only

To speak to empty air and darkness.

I heard the squeak of the front door as he slipped out

And hurried down the steps to the streets awash with rain

Yes, definitely. I said, The candle has burned out

And I lit what was left of the blackened wick, 

And sat on the floor with my half filled flute. 

Listening to Chet Baker, sick on that strawberry sweetness

I softly sighed, almost but not quite heart broken

But dull and accepting of fate

Yet hopeful, as always, 

Like Frasier.

©by Voo

Oct 16, 2006

11:40 p.m.