Day 101

Room 101

A bit like room 101, I have faced the worst of myself today to write this. It had to be done and it is honest as it can be seeing as I am a vain fool.

It's about the last few days before we left my dying grandmother to head west to Canada. It's not cheery, I'll promise you that!



Room 101

The betrayal smelled like
the boiled cabbage in that
crusty-cornered room. For the
first time in weeks as lucid as
lime she smiled her love through
dentured jaws. And I thought
there and then - if she could
she would return, such was the strength
of that love.

The boys, blond as the
sun, bursting with the promise
of this new life scrambled up
her frail form to kiss her, as she
held tight to life like
a full-bloomed rose clings
to its petals. The mantra of
my own justification issuing from
her lying lips.

"You must live your own lives" caught
in the swirl of the fan and spat back into
that stifling space - to hang in the
air like a plastic halloween
spectre. Gruesome in its plain
simple truth. The silent words "you need
to stay" rebounding off my
selfish spirit as she reassured me
she was okay.

Day Ninety-four

Romantic

I thought I would try my hand at a bit of romantic poetry today and use a technique that I'm sure is not called the 'repeat the first line again and again' technique, but here it is anyway.


We Are Not Romantic

We are not romantic but when
I fall you carry me; putting
your life on hold to
lift me higher.

We are not romantic but you
laid your velvet traveling cloak posh-side
down in the mire so I would not get
my best shoes wet.

We are not romantic but you
come to my bed with
a ready embrace and a smile
meant only for me.

We are not romantic but when
I hear a love song
on the radio
I think of you.

And on the day we married
you shone brighter to me
than the sun.