A round of extravagant cocktails with provocative names kicked off the giggles and conversation amongst the girls. The second drink was a more conservative glass of cheap white wine to ensure that the night’s budget was spread out as effectively as possible. After dancing to music that accentuated the precarious length of each woman’s dress, we acknowledged our shared sense of thirst with nods toward the bar. When the liquid had solidified our confidence, Tenniel and I snuck off to make our presence known online, ‘checking in’ beside a trash can filled with paper towels, in front of a toilet clogged with tissue and rank smells. Our reflection was all that I could focus on at this stage, and its feathered edges required no filter.
I See You
I see your hand, a tortured creature
where tubes of blood deploy.
I see your face, a ghost-like feature.
Your breast they have destroyed.
I still cannot believe it’s done.
This feels like deja vue.
With caution they announce you’ve won,
but still so much to do.
First restful sleep, you calmly lay,
until your eyes they flicker.
A morphine haze, relaxed and gay,
you’re drunk without the liquor.
Let’s crack champagne and make a toast.
“This life can now commence!
We’re grateful that you’re still so close”
(not just in a spiritual sense).
I speak to friends who mourn a loss,
their hearts are not rebuilt.
For they have lost at life’s coin toss.
I feel a sting of guilt.
New York Resolution
Snow speckled skyline, weather for sleep.
With hand on window, the window weeps.
New York resolution, longing to yield.
Train tracks are shut, but time still shunts on.
A once vibrant city, now visibly silent.
Ready and writhing, wrapped in layers,
worn winter workers, warmed from walking,
cling to hot coffee quickly gone cold.
Hands feel frozen and fail to hold.
A coffee catastrophe taints the ground,
white snow ruined by stain and hound.
This winter weather, no warmth in feather,
together they gabble, grounded by sleet.
Leaves unreliable, limp umbrellas,
precarious parcels of snow pile up.
With one swoop wishful thoughts wane.
Shoveling shopkeeper shoos birds away!
Wet people wander, seeking the warmth,
tracing new tracks, to torment his toils.
Inside he waits, watches, and wipes.
Customers leave, clutching umbrellas,
joints freezing fast, eyes fighting fog.
This crappy chasm becomes their life.
The feeling soon thaws when home with family.
Moist wool socks now flags on mantle.
At home is humid, jackets are hung,
look out the window, and long for the sun.
When Cake Escapes Pan
My mind is like a pancake undercooked.
A concentrated drop dispersed, unheeded.
Sovereign, at least that’s how it looked,
until the shape solidified when heated.
The thickened liquid poured into the pan,
tumbled towards the edge and tried to flee.
Was flipped forthwith it turned a shade of tan.
A vivid image in my head I see.
My fluid thoughts extend beyond my skull.
Non-stick, my head a pan that has no sides,
begins to lose momentum as I mull.
Ideas flow as long as mixture glides.
Until the liquid’s journey spreads it thin.
My thoughts a mess, and nothing left within.
Figure That
Well into the winter months,
women wax their bodies smooth.
The hairs are pulled haphazardly,
when holding the skin it still hurts.
Carefully coiffing their character,
they cut their colourful nails.
A pampered appearance
painfully plucked.
Tight, taut,
tapered
waist.
Waves of
hunger hanker.
They hate their hips,
their baby bearing bodies.
Oblivious to their real beauty.
They stifle their subtle sexiness
with an ostensible self perception.
They treat their body with contempt,
as time passes and taunts their toils.
For perfection of form they strive.
The Only Child
Onward she walks across excess of grass.
Her red beret atop her head of curls.
Eyes blue and clear, reflect the day about.
Delight consumes my thoughts when I recall.
Inside, the warmth surrounds in an embrace.
Prepare some tea and wait for her approach.
Cerise bouquet, the scent adrift the room.
A knock, a hug, we join around the bench.
Remember days when she was young like me.
Observe her face, innately kind and soft.
She raised five kids, who raised fourteen and more.
Three times that now exist because of her.
