Drunken Sincerity

I wrote this poem last year after being inspired by watching a girl in my Scientific Revolutions class play with an October leaf. It was a simple, innocent gesture, and I knew this wasn't the first time she had seen an October leaf. She might be from Florida, but she was here last year.

And this poem could be the epilogue to An Unrequited Response...I really don't know.

A hint of sulfur
Lingered
Between the words I Love You

Her drunken memories
Fell
Short
Of her sober dreams.
She could hear the words but couldn’t feel the reassurance.

He watched the sunrise patch across her face,
It was the closest warmth she felt
Since he readjusted the blanket over her shoulders.

She could not recall

the lost words

From the night before
And he had already
Left
To avoid clarifying why the sun was upon her.

Nothing more than just a glance across the lawn.
The only syllables exchanged were silent breaths.

The breeze caressed her cheek
And melted the hair over her shoulders.

Her wandering thoughts pinch a peculiar flame,
Her fingers felt no heat but knew the fragile crispness.
The inebriated memories could not reflect from the October leaf.
He steps on the brittle flames upon the grass.
Extinguishing sober truth and drunken memory.
"I love you" was what he said with a hint of sulfur on his lips.

Loveless ABC