Bonding

Your lips are painted like the setting sun

And stumble over speeches soaked in drink,

Excusing us outside to have some fun,

Ignoring what the other people think.

 

Burping from wine, with lipstick on your cheek,

You smile, last one standing in the dark,

I light a cigarette before I speak

And lie beside you, starstruck in the park.

 

“We two deserve,” I slur below the sky,

“To tell the other their neglected soul,

What it has borne, where it lives, and why

It’s spilled to strangers when we lose control.”

 

You giggle as you take your hand in mine

And blow a cone of smoke above our heads

That passing cars illumine with the shine

Of headlights, glowing on the flowerbeds.

 

“You first.” Fair’s fair, I’d not deny my flame

My vulnerability before she dared

To vomit painful secrets without shame,

“Me first, and later yours will be compared:

 

“I’m orphaned from a loving mother’s grace,

A father good for nothing once he fled,

Performing as I need from place to place

The charm of homelessness to keep me fed.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I have a bed and home,

But no connection to a distant past

That mother misses when we are alone-

Her firstborn son relies upon her last.

 

You are my quest my darling, nights like these,

Where moments are more beautiful than sense,

I wander lonely, blowing on the breeze,

To meet what comes my way without defense.

 

“Now you; more later; that’s the gist of it.”

You kiss me on the cheek and stroke my hair.

“Okay, I think you’re lovely,” you admit.

“I’ll tell the truth, it’s bad but I don’t care.

 

“My father killed himself, my mother drinks,

My brother went insane- I love him most.

Who isn’t mad who ever truly thinks?

Astray but clever, if you’ll let me boast.

 

You’re like him, and I think I’m quite like you,

We each have nothing but this starry night,

Let’s lie here ‘till the sun dawns and the dew

From morning glimmers in tomorrow’s light.”

 

Before nor since I’ve never undisclosed

What during our chance congress you received

And morning came with both of us exposed

And bonded with the other each believed.

 

Much later there’s a secret I can’t share,

For we were right that love would grow between

Two shoreless wanderers without a care

Who held each other on the grasses green.

 

My untold story is that you are lost,

I’ll never find a friend again that’s worth

Sharing this sorrow ‘till the grasses frost,

Your parting leaves me stranded on this earth.

 

She’s gone! She’s gone! Let all who read this know,

And only she could share and heal my pain,

The woman that I loved so long ago

Is never coming back again.