Drinking alone on a Saturday night

Once I loved a girl,
red red hair,
sea green eyes,
a ready smile,
a kind heart,
a gentle soul,
a body to stir the passion of even the most devout ascetic.

She smelled of cinnamon,
cloves and orange peels,
fresh tobacco,
oak moss and girl sweat and warmth and sunlight on a cool day.
When she laughed my skin would prickle with goosebumps,
when she spoke to me my wits vanished,
my tongue turned to sandpaper,
I became a capering fool for the slightest bit of attention.

She was born on a Thursday,
at 6:45 am,
the same year as myself,
I never told her how I felt,
she laughed at all my jokes.
I never made my move,
I didn't want to seem rude or uncouth,
she smiled at me when we passed in the hallway,
I didn't want to spoil anything,
didn't want to intrude where I wasn't wanted,
didn't want to be put in my place,
didn't want to learn that lesson.

She married another man,
a face more attractive than mine,
better smile,
better body,
more promising career.
A velvet voice,
and poison in his veins.
He was born on Saturday,
two years before I was,
sometime in the mid-afternoon hours,
with hatred in his heart,
a mind with discipline,
but no control.

They lived together for three years,
she and I grew steadily apart,
she wrote me a strange letter,
he didn't approve,
I was obsolete.
We couldn't laugh about the same things anymore,
we couldn't talk,
I couldn't see,
I couldn't hear,
the world was changed for both of us.

The wheel kept on turning,
he beat her to death with a wrench,
on a Monday,
at about 8:47 pm,
because he didn't like the outcome of a football game,
it didn't even make the front page,
I heard about it from a friend,
I missed the funeral,
I have never been to that part of the country,
I plan never to visit.

The bluegrass version of Julia Dream,
smell of Old Crow Bourbon,
taste of midnight on my tongue,
bringing unwanted memories,
reserves from the writhing ball in my stomach.


Once I loved a girl,
with red red hair,
sea green eyes,
a ready smile............