Tea-Room Couples

Bellies waffle-full
Maple syrup, orange blossom brew
Such sweetheart hunger satisfied
Hands entwine the casual bond
Of morning lovers returning for the afternoon
To the naked, caressing coal of their shady room.

I imagined romance flowered gardens
Of a summer-lovers affair
But with petal passions declared fallen and dead
I was quietly, quickly, neatly shelved
Filed in a pussy-dealer's moneyed memory bank
Wintering in my pmpered arms
He left with a love-lined heavy purse of mine
His emotions disposed of in the back door bin
My pearls-strung tears still broken
Into whispers of pieces of aborted dreams.

Nicotine yellow, indigo wine and red blood mingle
Hot-heart pumping mad nightmares
that stain my brain
Body-supine, sun soaked
Lazy heat-haze painless daze
Only in the head does this sick sorrow spew.

Swallows swoop back through my eyes
As rooks in grey-clouds visions
Of mind and heavy soul
Squawking, repeating, reminding
Shame-hate-rejection-pain
Sharp and sudden and again
and again....
Another empty battle's acid reflections
Of a cheap poison past.

(March 1983)