95 valium
 

 

it's raining, saturday morning

you wake up crying from the night before

the kids came home late last night

the kitchen is in a mess

you're no longer sure about love

yes love, that is the question

you live with your husband of twenty years

and you still have children at home

the question is love

what of it /where is it/where did it go

you are trying to remember love

the smell of it, the taste of it

you want to remember the colour of love

your eyes are circling the kitchen

looking for the colour of love

you contemplate the phone

a black box of distant promise

there is no love there

the fridge, pure white

a fat woman in a white sheet

she is talking to you

it is not a friendly conversation

 

she is pointing to the window

in the window it is raining

blue tears, sliding down the clear glass

the colour of love is waiting

in the windowsill, a bottle

it is clear glass full of blue tears

ninety-five valium like beer on the wall

ninety-five valium

go on, take them all

 

the woman in the sheet

is whispering cool messages

helping you swallow

promising lies

the blue tears

are falling down the window

down your cheeks

blue tears down your throat

the colour of love

 

 

 

Copyright©michael dennis/South Western Ontario Poetry 1983

 

 

back to no saviour and no special grace

back to michael dennis home