Changes and Used Denim

Changes and Used Denim

 

 

curled up in your jeans

bell-bottomed flip in your tongue

blond roses in your bangs

and moon dust sprinkled on your lashes

we kissed the sixties goodbye

as the seventies rested in our laps

with the popcorn and Pepsi's 

we munched and swirled 

after engaging in a decade of love

 

the movie tape had run its course hours ago

the house silent as a church

we'd sinned enough to fill several reels of film

and laughed about it into many distant sunsets

rhyming and climbing upon one another's hearts

 

the words we put in our pockets

the sentiment laid out on the table

no lies, no outcries, no bets, no regrets

 

and then the suddenly seventies scent

filled the room

we said goodbye

kisses hanging in jilted air

like unsaid words

 

followed by the uncomfortable 

dead air of the eighties

and the worn out welcome

of the bells given to goodwill.

 

 

erin-cilberto

8/17/19 

Reviews

[kentuck14]

Yeah the eighties were nothing like the 70's . . . was getting older and less flexible I guess. Great images here, J. Love the Title. One of the things I notice about a lot of early modern poetry was the less than mind-grabbing titles. A good title invites you to knock on the door of the poem and enter. Hey, is that a good subject for a poem, or what? Probably a big whatever, right!
T

[jacob erin-cilberto]

titles have always been of utmost importance to me...
yes, hopefully, attention getters.
read moretitles have always been of utmost importance to me...
yes, hopefully, attention getters.
thank you for your review, Tom,
j.

[R.E. Ray]

Don’t miss the 80s, but I miss my old denim jeans... and a good woman. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for the read and words, R.E.
j.

[David Klay]

Excellent!! Made me smile and laugh and nod my head. I agree about the eighties too! :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you so much for your words, David...
j.

[Ted Kniffen]

It was said "if you remember the sixties you weren't there"...but there are some things from that time that can't be forgotten...paisley...bell bottoms...snoot boots...patchouli and incense...or maybe it was incense
and peppermints...and that special love that didn't work out. But oh, it was special while it lasted.

A good write, j.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

the strawberry alarm clock thought so...
yes, special, even with its drawbacks...thank you, Ted///

j.

[nazia]

It is so difficult not to cling on to your first love. Mine is happily married to someone else now. Though your words make me feel like it was only yesterday that I met him.
A very relatable piece of writing :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind words, nazia,
j.

[Eilis]

Just poet to poet, I love the descriptions you have in S1. Such a lively way to bring us into the scene, it feels cinematic.

My memories begin in the seventies, so I'm not familiar with the actual atmosphere of the sixties. But your poetry does offer a road in for me, Jacob. I like the way this one spans three decades and offers the sense that love, even when it does not last forever, touches us through time. We never know what other people are going to do to us. Sometimes they just keep floating with us through the decades even when they are not there.

Sometimes that can be good and sometimes painful. I really enjoyed your storytelling in this poem. It's sparked my imagination. Great work, J.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, and glad you could find a road with this, Eilis,
j.

[Chris Shaw]

First love, you never get over that. It lies low and there are regrets and wishes it had worked out differently. My first love died at 26 from muscular dystrophy. By then both of us were married to others. My marriage didn't work out, if I'd married my first love I would have been a young widow. Either way I would have suffered. I get the impression that you never thought your parting would be final, maybe you thought it may be revived at a later date. The eighties put paid to that. There are happy memories here of much loving, but there is deep sadness too. Such is life. A lovely poem Jacob of young love and all the hope that brings and loss too. Forgive me for saying too much, but your lines were so relatable.

Chris

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i really appreciate your sharing on this one, Chris...thank you for your words,
j.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

An old pair of denim jeans can have seen a decade or two pass and in this sad tale the protagonist tells of a decade of happiness followed by a parting of ways and decades of blue regret. I think I get this one having been there Jacob. It never leaves you! As always you capture such feeling in a well written piece.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, John,
j.

[redzone]

I wish my love had lasted a decade Jacob, only 5 years.. the decade came in the form of regrets until I could love again... everything changes and we find the ways to continue within these changes or we become relics of the past... much of our knowledge come to us in the form of mistakes, misgivings as well as successes... and those 'bells' you mention are often like tears we shed and fill oceans...

I guess this is a woeful comment on a really good poem Jacob, but my mind went right to her with the mention of denim and bell bottoms, not to also mention "moon dust sprinkled lashes"... it's funny how a poem like this one can take you right back there like it was 2 minutes ago...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

my goodness..."a woeful comment"? not even close..
we were five years as well...the inspiration for this.
thank you for understanding, Curt,
j.