Moonbirds

When you first left me

I began a new relationship

with the phosphorescent pull

of liquor store displays.

So it was no surprise really

 

when I woke up one Thursday

at two in the afternoon with twelve

bottles crammed in my desk

drawers and a pounding headache.

They shelved themselves in there,

up against car keys and textbooks,

somewhere between expired

gift cards and shredded lottery

 

tickets. I kissed three friends

or four, and their lips all tasted

like the wines of heaven,

but none had the trademark

 

pomegranate stickiness of yours.

I listened to the sizzling yellow

sparks of streetlights with a

stranger on a park bench.

When his mother died so did

his love for his father,

and he was just trying to find

his way back by fishing on

Sunday mornings with his

suicidal sister. So far they were

 

both drowning. And so

I spent many late nights

rummaging for purpose in

all the wrong places, falling

asleep in the beds of others

with vodka-filled coffee cups

 

tucked under my arms. And

one morning around four

when the intoxicating mix

of nostalgia and gin kept

me awake, I gazed from my

 

third floor bathroom window

with bloody cuticles and deep

red eyes, with thoughts of you

foaming in my brain like

a shaken Coca-Cola. It

hurt at first, I’ll be honest,

 

but my God, for the first time

in my life I heard them singing,

the resounding chirps of night

 

birds floating in through the

broken window. When I tried

to search them out in the squalid

 

blackness I saw only the moon,

yet their songs rose higher, calling

from a paradise I never expected.

 

Reviews

[Addy]

I love how you can tell that story in the way you do. It's so inviting. Very good.

[Shezza]

You have a knack for describing the mundane in your on tongue. Great read.
Well done!

[Emily]

Love the meaning of this poem! Well done.

[peculiar]

Good imagery, clear message and smooth flow! The manner in which the poem is spaced and cut per line and stanza might need some more attention however, otherwise nicely done!! :)