5 comments

  1. Ke11y

    Last night I threw love out the window.

    Completely done with her.

    Good riddance to all her rubbish. I’m certain she carries with her satanic distractions anyway.

    You’ve met her haven’t you? Vagabond emotion dressed in red, flirting with loneliness and desire, kidding you into believing strange innocence’s when all the time she has very disturbing reasons for visiting.

    Beware, okay? I’m telling you straight, she will give you sleepless nights.

    Yes, yes, I remember the morning she arrived, the rising July sun spreading across the Scottish hillsides. My idiot dreams all intact and flowering. That was the exact day I opened my heart’s door. Love walked in, the beggar girl, the monstrous child, how little she cared.

    I was never really in control of the undertaking. I was simply dragged from room to room and in each found there some new glad adventure. There were days when I was content to stretch out on a pallet of straw, beguiled by her impossibly beautiful voice. Yet how little she cared.

    She took advantage of my weaknesses, coming as she did to the sound of nature’s music, amusing me with lightning and thunder, disgusting me with stinking early morning mouths, blood shot eyes, and semen stained sheets.

    We lived together on the beach of faithful children.

    She brought me the spoils of long walks, misty rains, castle walls, and golden chains that linked stars in the powdery blackness. It was then she brought to me the crackle of a rosy fire, her heart smoldering against mine, and together we ate our fortune and desires.

    She came to me when I was adolescent, and left me more a child than I cared to be.

    That’s the thing about her. She will go away. Either you will leave or she will. That’s after you acquire the cold taste for churches. Ropes strung from steeple to steeple, teasing you with thoughts of a forever together.

    Priests, as fat as fish, marry you but it is an incomplete education. I’m no more than a castaway raising a sail on some distant pond as I make my metaphysical voyage to understand her absence. There is no understanding. There is only acceptance.

    When love comes into your life, dressed in red, flirting with your needs and desires, treat her respectfully. Make out of anything the stuff of fortunes and dreams; you’ll need them if you’re to keep her breath smelling sweet. Don’t dawdle in clouds or lie down on beds believing time is on your side; it isn’t.

    Oh yes, this morning I reached out for love, knowing I cannot live without her.

    1. Kathy Myers

      A lot can happen over night. You have captured the turmoil that love can bring; for better or for worse (no wonder they include that in the vows!). I like the technique of personifying an emotion; what she wears and what she does. The ending (following such a vigorous rant) was satisfying, funny, and spot on when it comes to love. Amazing what a good night’s sleep can do.

  2. mcullen Post author

    More gorgeous writing from you, Kelly. The opening lines drew me right in, savoring your words, your thoughts, your intentions. . . words that paint a bittersweet scene. . . I read quickly as one would enjoy an ice cream cone. . . delighting in the sensations before they melt. With the second reading, I could take my time and savor the poignant message . . . the life lessons that circle, that we all endure.

  3. heartmom

    The lyrical nature of your writing was intensely satisfying. Parts skipped and swung and sounded like songs … casually coming together to rhyme, and then parting to gather more momentum ( long walks, misty rains, castle walls and golden chains). Other “pictures” were painted starkly, (ropes strung from steeple to steeple) – a bleak, terse, complete thought with six words. I enjoyed reading this through several times ( my favorite phrase – Priests, as fat as fishes) and am amazed at how I can smile, chuckle, tear up, and sigh all at the same time.

  4. Ke11y

    Thank you all for the compliment you pay me in responding to what I have written. I’m deeply appreciative and encouraged. Thank you.

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