The Date
Published on:
#posts #poetryAfter Kay Ryan
She's silent, stiff. You drum fingers
on pressed linen. The waiter brings
red wine. Only one glass. Your mind
is filled with dust spirals and wind.
You order steak, but she doesn't eat.
You try a joke, get the punchline wrong,
and she does not laugh. She is smiling.
Always smiling. This isn't going well,
you say to yourself. Flustered, you knock
your glass. Scarlet seeps into cream.
She does not mind. She isn't here.
Hasn't been for years now.
I'm taking part in the Red Sky Sessions run by Apples and Snakes. It's a five week program focusing on writing poetry. In the first session we read this poem by Kay Ryan and were asked to write a poem backwards. Starting at the end and writing the rest of the poem above it. So of course I went for a Twilight Zone style ending.
I'm not going to do #napowrimo publicly this month, which is a shame. I just don't have the capacity to publish every day. But I'm still going to try and write lots of poems.
Next: Count Down to Infinity | Previous: Clarity