Flicker or Spark

About a love gone down the tubes.

Soon the memories will fade.
Those months spent with you
have left me all alone,
cold-sweating
and reaching out for someone to love me
the way you did.
I find reminders of you everywhere;
a bit of copper wiring,
sparkless lighters.
Is that us?
As useless as an inch of copper wiring,
as dead inside as all those lighters we bought?
I just never thought we'd flicker out.

Reviews

[Ashley Acri]

I truly love how this poem carries so much weight using so little. There is beautiful imagery, but it is well-conserved throughout the poem. I also like how the emotion throughout the poem seems to be calm and thoughtful rather than fiery and explosive, which is slightly more typical (in my experience) with this subject matter. Great poem! Thank you for sharing!

[Emily Irene.]

Your comment made my day! You're right, its typical to feel anger and revulsion at an ex-lover but I guess I still love him too much to really hate him.

[Ashley Acri]

OH honey I have been there forever hahahahaha

[Emily Irene.]

Aw I'm sorry to hear that, its a terrible bittersweet feeling.

[zombiebird]

I really like this! The continuity of the metaphor makes the last line really powerful. I like the emotion it conveys, too. Sort of melancholy, but sort of accepting... at least that's how it makes me feel. I love the imagery, it is well done and plays off the idea of love as flame really well.

[Emily Irene.]

It was inspired by the song "Try" by Pink, where she sings, "When there's a flame, someone's bound to get burned" and looking at my floor one day. My ex, towards the end of our relationship, had taken to scrapping copper for spare change. He made jewelry with the spare parts. And it hit me how, for now, everything I do and see is going to remind me of him.