Nine years together
and you leave me
as suddenly as a freighter
slipping anchor
heavy
gliding off on oily black water
into the night
across the Bay
Or
As final as the taxi light turned off
as passenger free it
departed into the city darkness
A fizz of hotel neon goes silent and expires
as guests sigh into pillows
and leave damp haiku
for bored maids to read
Across the empty park
a zoo closed expires in the grip of twilight
bedding down animal cries
muted
until morning
A chorus of suitcases on the stairs
your only explanation a message
lost amongst the stickers
Cairo – Rome – Paris
as if your lost reasoning dashes for a train
and leaves luggage behind
Your ‘farewell’ trapped in the elevator – descending down
Now
I’m as wretched as an empty
Scotch bottle
In as many pieces as an overflowing ashtray
left
beneath a moon as sour
as a slice of unripe lemon
jammed between a skyscraper
and a rusty radio station mast
I can imagine buckling flowers
your naked body in my hands
like silk gently snagged on a breeze
Which memories refuse to die?
Nine years
Who let the cookie jar overflow?
the conversation died
the bed turned to frost
perhaps you will come back
through the door
smiling
shopping in your arms as if nothing happened
time as a small mercy
come to rescue us
Will let us know once more
all that we had
now
nothing more than
a fire gutted
museum
pelted silently with snow
.
Malcolm Paul
Picture Ben Shahn
.