I’m Grateful I Didn’t Sing That to You

I’m grateful I didn’t sing this to you. You would’ve left me.

 

O

To rest. together

at the sunset

of a long, day’s ache,

with the weight

of all the tomorrows

on both shoulders,

and take in

the intoxicants

of your caress…

 

It happened when we were watching the sinking sun through our bedroom window

and just lying there you made me think of oil paintings.

Thank God I didn’t sing this to you. You would’ve left me.

Or worse, you would’ve told all your friends.

 

You make my nerves sing.

Sing more…

More than if they hadn’t been

Stripped down, bare

From heartless ex-lovers

Over and over again.

 

Perhaps I’ll discreetly record it, and pay a lawyer to give it to you in the unlikely event of my death.

Perhaps my hopeless hidden melodrama will provide some consolation. You might think: well it least I never had to worry about the look on my face when he sang THAT to me.

As silly as it sounds it’s about returning spring and you, and for now I’m calling it Sweet Exhaustion.

 

The green is coming back,

and the rain is getting softer,

and I’ll take my leave

of suffering,

and taste the air

of our sweet exhaustion…

 

– David J. Bausch, 1st Place in Poetry