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