The One That Didn't Necessarily Get Away, But Fled Like The Sea

A short poem about lost love

I think love has a name and it’s the same name

I used to call out under muffled breaths on

sleepless nights beneath your winter sheets.

There was a stain on your mattress from the

Sunday we decided we would live as tipplers

and drank margaritas at three o’clock in the

afternoon. I think if love had a scent she would

smell like black coffee and oil pastels, the way

you always smelled when you painted in your

kitchen on days where you said you’d rather not

exist and sketched yourself into a different world.

In the mornings she was the birds singing outside

your window and in the afternoons she chanted

the songs of pleasure when you touched me.

I wondered if love always tasted like short-lived

winter nights and cold, sour coffee from three

weekends ago. I never asked her where she

went when she fell slowly from our laps and

then fell apart when she decided to bring you

something better.

Reviews

[Andrew James Talbot]

Great work. You have empathy and the constant themes - lost love, abandonment, drinks, taste, late night loneliness without that self-obsessed adolescent suffocation - create real atmospheres that the reader can feel and be affected by. Top stuff.

[Ali Guerra]

thank you, i appreciate it :]

[Sami Khalil]

A splendid read and write...Thank you for sharing...:)

[Ali Guerra]

i'm glad you enjoyed it :]

[Sami Khalil]

You are welcome...:)

[DCT ponderings]

Ali, this is fabulous. Thank you for writing such a lovely invitation. You are a beautiful story teller and paint an exquisite picture with your words, images I too have lived, heartache I too have felt.

[Ali Guerra]

oh, you're too kind! i'm so glad you enjoyed it, although i don't wish that kind of pain on anyone

[DCT ponderings]

Indeed not, though if we open our heart to love I fear it is often unavoidable. :)

[Ali Guerra]

very true. thanks again for reading :]

[An owl on the moon]

I relate too well to these beautifully sorrowful recollections... and ache if these spring from the soul of your own experience... hate to think of you ever suffering through such painful moments. And the deeper the joy and love, the deeper the anguish when it ends. So powerfully moving.

[Ali Guerra]

i wanted to incorporate the enthralling beginning to a relationship and then the perplexity and sadness you feel when it is coming to an end

it happens to everyone, right? thanks, craig :]

[An owl on the moon]

Yes.. oh yes.. it does.. How it cuts into us all... You expressed so well I nearly bled again. xx

[Ali Guerra]

oh well i do not want that for you at all, but thank you! xx

[An owl on the moon]

Don't you ever stop.. please.. I don't mind bleeding for art... :)

[Ali Guerra]

ah well i won't, as long as you don't stop either :)

[An owl on the moon]

Pinky promise... or spit on hand and shake promise, if you prefer. ;)

[Ali Guerra]

let's spit on it :]

[An owl on the moon]

Pthu! *Shaking hands* ;D