Today's poem last appeared on the blog in 2009. It has been requested today for 'Harry from Newport. While not strictly autobiographical, I can easily relate to it. It was inspired by a friend’s experience at a local launderette and I started writing the poem while my washing was chugging around in a machine there.
Now, various people, lovers too, enter and exit our lives like actors on a stage and sometimes we and/or they fluff our lines. Some of us get a second chance to get it right, others find themselves in another play altogether. While I’ve had boyfriends before as well as since I discovered and lost the love of my life, I have never been very good at relationships and always needed a lot of encouragement to make them work. Work at them though, I was always willing do. Although I have a string of failed relationships behind me, they also gave me some great times and put me in touch with some wonderful people, a few with whom I have stayed friends for years.
G-A-Y, MAGIC MOMENTS or IN THE WASH
One day, my lover told me he was leaving,
how he wished he’d never met me,
packed his bags and just walked away;
I spent months on weepy streets
trying to forget about us, cruising casual meets,
till met someone at the launderette
who had never been there before, and asked
to share my soap powder
We chatted away on an old wooden bench
and soon I was dying to tell him
how I loved his smile as he related how he
and his girlfriend were new to the city,
(puppy brown eyes letting me down gently?)
but although we'd see each other there
on Sunday afternoons, come rain or shine
he never mentioned her again
It wasn't long before more than his smile
took on a whole new meaning for me
whenever we were together, magic moments
of the kind that may (or may not) mean
something or nothing, but hope springs eternal,
and we knew something special between us
deserved at least a fighting chance to find out
just where it is that fools rush in
My
ex turned up one day, suggested we try
and get back to the way we were;
I let him hug and kiss me, but he’d guessed
it was too late, long before I confessed
to a magical launderette with a mind of its own
having put him out of my head for love
of another, though I had no idea he felt the same
or just wishful thinking on my part
He took the news badly and called me a fool
for throwing us away on a whim,
overlooking that it wasn't me gave up on us,
but him, plainly expecting me to fall
on my knees and kiss his feet, as months earlier
I well might, but absence hadn’t left my heart
growing fonder, rather it was beating all the faster
for freedom won if never sought
Just as he was leaving, my new friend arrived,
took in the situation at a glance,
grinned and shook my ex's hand, thanked him
for putting me his way, then kissed me
like he never had before, throwing me a wink
as my ex stormed out, slamming the door,
whereupon others we had barely acknowledged
applauded us, and let rip with cheer
Copyright R. N. Taber 2005. 2021
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