Blind Date With Valerie
A true story 🙂
I brushed pizza boxes off a seat
Outside the lunchtime rendezvous
And sat, cool in my fedora,
Tapping out a textie.
“I’m outside the café, on the settle.
Duffel coat. Hat. I’m unmistakable.”
She was only human
So she was bound to fancy me.
I mulled a moment then took the plunge –
Adding upper-case kisses!
Hit ‘send’ and waited.
Seconds later my phone vibrated,
“C U in 5”
I knew I was in with half a chance –
Despite her ‘Wee Kirk’ reticence
She closed with a single lower case kiss.
I ordered a pot of tea for me
And glass of water – extra lemon
For Valerie.
We dined ‘a la carte’.
Curried dog shite on a bed of off-white rice.
Microwaved naans – leathery poppadoms,
Mineral water.
No wine.
In her Borders lilt and my estuarine
We talked of faith and faithlessness
Partners past, future hopes
How we dealt with life and death
And friends and family
And sensed that necessary empathy.
Sometime during the chatathon
Eyes met and fingers linked.
She told me I had shining eyes
I flirted, “That’s due to the view,”
Like you do.
Four hours passed in a twinkling
Pale midday sunshine turned twilight
Lowry figures angling against the weather,
Struggled past the cafe window.
It was time to go.
We walked arm in arm
Laughing at rain dripping from my brim.
I wiped a raindrop from her cheek
And pretended it a tear,
Kissed her dew-soft compliant lips
Not once but twice
And lightly brushed her fingertips.
Exquisite aloneness wrapped me
Waving her car’s red lights goodbye.
Valerie was ‘the One’.
The latest ‘One’ of a long, long line
And like the rest,
Our paths would never cross again.
I love the little mataphoric observations like ‘lower case kiss’ with me it was all a wee bit digital: The latest ‘One’ of a long, long line of ‘Ones’ and ‘Zeroes’….
Actually she did contact me again so I rewrote this in a positive frame and then she went to a New Age yoga week met ‘someone interesting’ and dumped me so I reverted 🙂 Rick.
I always get swept up in your poems, the seemingly casually added rhyme here and there and the loose ended dance of relationships. Sue.
Thanks, Sue, I’m not sure what you’ll make of my Friday submission – I’m not sure what I make of it either ha ha Regarding rhymes – I’m agin ’em generally speaking but the buggers keep popping up nevertheless 🙂 Rick
I prefer half rhymes and assonance – it can tantalise the audience as they try to second guess what might be coming – in standard doggerel it is easy to predict the last word of the next line – I try to keep ’em guessing 🙂