One Sunny Afternoon
A mood poem
Circa mid 1950s, Regina
Early afternoon, sun streaks paint
Slanted anti-shadows on the
Scuffed-up, worn to grooves
Beer parlor floor, which was propped open
With a rusted old anvil.
Alone, brooding at a silent
Table, mooning over lost love.
Cliche.
But it happened to me.
Beer on tap tastes watered down.
Feeling both alone and abandoned,
Down with the beer-swilling
Broken-hearted blues.
In walks a friend who is an
Acquaintance, and we fall into
Chat. Compare lovelorn stories.
Totally unaware the beer parlor
Is starting to fill up with after-
Workers, nose-deaf to the smokers’
Haze, ears failing to acknowledge
The familiar camouflage of the
Rising decibels of the din.
So deep are we in our heart
Break blues our eyes fail to take
In the familiar first-name crowd.
Too blues-oriented are we
That the sun’s anti-shadow rays
Shift and shadows swallow them up.
“If she walked through that door right now,“
I moon, “I would take her back.
I would take her back…”
“Yeah,” my friend who is an acquaintance
Nods as he plucks his spare ciggy
From behind his ear, barely ruffling
His uncut, youthful mop of raven black.
“Same here,” he burps. “Me too.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “Men weren’t born to
Be alone.”
“Tha’s right.” The hazy eyes of my friend
Who is an acquaintance tries to focus.
Wisdom, I think to my inner self,
Sometimes comes out of the blues.
It was six years before I could love again.
Fellas feel deeply, ya know.
Ah. The wisdom of the blues.
— —
Thought you might like to see the “human side” of me.
Never touch the stuff any more.
Here’s to shadowy memories of shadowy folks
Who passed through our lives
To lend us a lesson.
She’s but a ghost in my past,
All shadows and shades
She’s all forgotten now,
Now that she’s gone,
Melted away like a dream,
Like a wisp of smoke.
And life goes on
With lesson learned
Memories fade.
There is nothing left now
But shadows and shades.
