"But first, baby, as you climb and count the stairs (and they total the same), did you, sometime or somewhere, have a different idea?
Is this, baby, what you were born to feel, and do, and be?"

-Kenneth Fearing



Sunday, August 1, 2010

Just Before the Sky Fell Down

*





She twirled in the Santa Ana winds

like a satellite finding its orbit in the driveway.

The Eagles Greatest Hits played for the fifth time in a row

because letting it play was easier than finding another album

that everyone drinking could tolerate.

She really liked singing along to Desperado.

You felt indestructible, even knowing that when reality

returned, the woman you watched would be someone else’s wife.

But it could wait. Let it wait. Let it hang there like the moon.

No need to even mention it.



You couldn’t blame the alcohol, because you drank

yourself sober long before, and can’t pretend

you didn’t know what was coming, when she stepped back

inside, the wind still whispering around her, remarked that

the stars had brought you here, and then looked in your eyes,

and said oh so seriously, that infidelity isn’t a problem

but a symptom of a problem,

and you, of course, agreed.

 
              
                              -Brent Allard

7 comments:

  1. Indeed! Well maybe they'll read a cautionary tale like the one above.

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  2. I am enjoying the truth of this. Good work.

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  3. Thanks Jhon! Glad you enjoyed it!

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  4. Sets a definite tone through comfortably subdued imagery that illuminates an uncomfortable reality.

    Wow. That was an awesome review I just wrote.

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  5. simple honest narrative and therefore deeply touching. you write really well :)

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  6. I always enjoy reading your writing, a story in perfect poetic form, you have a way with sharing the images and feelings so well. The message, yes a tough one. Great poem Brent

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  7. Thank you Kap, Lash and Bernadine! I appreciate your kind words!

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