Incessant stream of words, unbroken
By exhalation--
Cease not! as you are a token
Of her presence.
Since words are the mark of care,
Do not desist, but caress
Me, who am captive,
Obsessed, distracted;
Senseless:
Senses, all but one,
Numbed.
Reason fled,
Once my only companion. Now
The dust settles, clearing out
Empty air.
Mindless infatuation plagues a
Mind void of reason.
Reason fled.
I linger in its absence, construing
Cruel and tacit signals, unspoken
Testimony of disgust and rejection.
Ceaseless stream of words, broken.
Only sight affirms her presence:
She stops to sip;
Jazzy chords and late evening gossip
Rush to fill the empty air.
Her attention, once mine,
Belongs to me no longer, lost
To a white cup and saucer.
Grimace: facial theatre of pain:
Drink or I that merit such disdain?
She drinks again and looks away, leaving
Me to unfounded conjectures,
Paranoid assumptions, that lead
A senseless mind astray.
Words whirl toward me through
Translucent air:
An isolated spurt, nothing more,
To reveal intention,
So often concealed.
(The incessant stream does not resume.)
Instructed to wait, as she departs, to return
Soon,
Or so she claims, but I know that
She chases reason;
Both have fled:
Solitude remains.
Solitude fills her empty seat,
Entertains me with
Self-offending speculation
As to her swift departure.
Swiftly moves through the
Dense jungle of tables and chatter,
Jazzy chords announce her
Exit.
No longer teased by the feather of
Hope, my heavy eyes settle:
Bohemian art abounds. People--
Half flesh, half metal--
Carry on the weight of
Ponderous discourse.
A white sphere breaks the triangle:
Color spreads across a bed of green lint
Toward six holes.
A full glass slides across the counter
To overcome the gap that
Keeps client from vendor.
A sharp wit induces raucous
Laughter, which soon settles
Like the woman's hand on the man's arm.
Frigid air and bitter snow
Pollute the world outside.
Nimble fingers across an instrument's
Strings--enduring beat
Insured by tapping feet.
The night is led astray by
Jazzy chords,
But I remain,
Along with the residue of some
Memory, evoked by a black heap
Near the table's leg:
A handbag,
And from it, an incessant beep,
Summoning its mistress.
Cease not! as you affirm
Her imminent return.
Do not desist, but caress
Me, who am enslaved,
Possessed, distressed;
Senseless:
Senses, all but one,
Numbed.
Reason fled,
And once fled, can never return.
