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Image for the poem kiss the sleeping night

kiss the sleeping night


every time I cross trails with a dame like her, I realize I
could never be a woman. I haven’t got the guts for the job.
I’ve taken a bullet or two in those firefights, & I’ve got the
purple hearts to prove it.

…the night began at Bogart’s according to routine: get
drunk, stumble home, & pass out on the steps of the
ramshackle hotel where I maintained a one-room kingdom.
when she walked in, the joint lit up like searchlights in an
air raid.

for an hour with those killer eyes, I’d give her a dime & tell
her to keep the change. if I had a dime. I’d take a seat at her
poker table like every other lovesick Lothario. if she dealt
from the bottom of the deck, I’d need a monkey wrench to
spill her mechanics. when the showdown came, I couldn’t
beat a pair of deuces if I was holding all the aces.

she came over to me & bummed a smoke. don’t know if she
was attracted to my hound dog eyes or my two o’clock shadow
(yeah, it starts early for me.)

after a few peppermint spritzes, she snuggled real close & said,
‘you’re my pirate prince, I want you to take me home. I can’t be
alone on a pretty night like this.’

at her place, she pressed her lips against mine like she was the
inventor of kissing. our clothes were suddenly prisons from which
we made a desperate escape. it was about to get rudely intimate,
so the screen faded to black…

after a while, I gently untangled myself from her napping embrace.
I stood by the window as the moonlight caressed her sleeping
beauty like it was designed strictly for that purpose. of course, I
knew I was a shopworn interloper in this radiant neverland dream.
she’d be sober in the morning, & I’d just be a ragged hangover.

I hunched my collar & walked home in the rain, sharing brokedown
fairytale secrets with the lonesome moon…



Written by JohnFeddeler
Published
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