Going for Coffee
Hot gravel blisters bubble under her big toe,
Twists and hops, remembered hurt in every step,
Sharp stone, dirty path winds ever farther.
Juke joint music rides the dry summer air,
Stifling heat crests, then cools, stereo snaps silent.
“She left hours ago, man.”
There was a day when I was twelve.
I sat upon a purple blanket, on the green field beside the park’s baseball diamond.
The sun blazed hot.
My bare toes searched through cool blades of June grass.
I had no cares except everything.
Happiness.
***
44 word quadrille for this week’s d’Verse prompt: happiness
His arm outstretched on the bar top so long
Defining wood grain has marked his skin with deep welts, lines,
Semi-permanent tattoos, depicting the aching magnetism
Of old fashioned, warm amber, honeyed,
Pain relief. Waiting.
Just beyond his fingertips, though never beyond his grasp.
d’Verse quadrille (44 word poem) prompt: magnetic (in any form)
Upon waking from brief escape,
I’m anxious, timorous.
Sky’s darkest blue is unrecognizable.
For all-consuming shades and shadows,
Blanket dreary these cold, unknowable hours.
Is it morning or midnight?
I tuck my exhausted heart beneath the crumpled duvet,
And await a calm of light.
***
Before our worlds unraveled, then knotted,
Before life pulled our friendship apart,
Untethered our hearts, then shattered,
Do you remember,
Our laughter and blue stained fingers,
Our common goal, our only enemy,
The laden branches and brambles,
At the edge of your grandma’s garden?
44 words for this week’s Quadrille on d’Verse Poet’s Pub. The prompt: brambles.
Slid-sideways on marble, fell-tumbled at market
Sucking lemons is better than swallowing bitter pills.
No sleeve’s wide enough to wear that bloody heart.
Pouring sorrows over arching muddles
Like rain flooding gigantic puddles.
Silly isn’t it to waste a day being
bucolic,
melancholic,
alcoholic.
Closed window blinds hide her form from view,
Though a sliver of sunlight spies its way through
Dust motes.
It doesn’t matter.
Paper scratched, life-weary words flutter about,
Then fall away.
Her silent silhouette slumps,
Disappears.
Her heart’s voice breaks,
But no one hears.
44 words for this week’s dVerse Poets quadrille challenge: voice
Disappointments descend, flutter, circle down, surrounding me
Like autumnal crimson leaves fall to rest at the base of a maple tree
Like layers of discarded, crumbling leaves, covering me up
Like last night’s blankets and denied possibilities
Like last night’s dreams
Disappear
Like me.
44 words for this week’s d’Verse quadrille prompt: up
And while I was within
An ace of falling for your lies,
Believing your cries of devotion,
Waiting for Spring to begin.
I heard my heartbeats.
Louder than words,
Moving me towards,
A life that would not repeat,
The pain of loving you again.
***
44 words Quadrille for this week’s d’Verse Poets prompt: ace
We spoke for hours that dusty cloud day,
Grandfather and I in a dented rowboat,
Fishing lines poised over a cool, still lake,
Trolling shallow.
Yet with water surrounding,
We caught by surprise, threads interweaving,
To something deeper, a gathering place.
Respect,
Understanding,
Love.
