One For the Road

**Originally posted in "The End" competition.**

This is a waiting room for the heart's last lonely panic...

Regret, a tepid pool
of longings unfulfilled
long before this final residue
of autumn spilt
its delicate--
indifferently.

What else could I tell you now, if my life were not my faith...

Drifting away
from this small dark gathering
of sorrows
for another creature's pain
become unbearable.
As long as I may love you,
I would never
have led you here--
wanting.

I cannot catch her this time, as we fall apart...

Even this misery
is bitter-sweet,
that the still darkness
seems calming...

For in you are all of the prayers that I have left...

Go! Say your goodbyes.
I have done all that I can
to never hurt you.
I would stay here
for a little while longer,
if I believed
that I could leave you
peace.

Do not rush to be by my side again...

You know that
you hog the bed anyways.
Your laughter is
one more smile for me
to take along,
alone with me.

I am not really expecting some grand reception on the other side...

Stay
For now is what
is left of forever--perhaps.
Everything may have been
a little
too much to expect.
Like a child,
I only want to know
that I have been good enough.
You have become
home to me,
no matter where
life had led
and left us.

Yeah, that's about as good as it ever really gets...

I am pretty sure
that I cannot fix this.
You could go and get me
some tools
from the shed
and I could
give it one last
going over before...

Probably not, but I suspect that I couldn't make anything worse...

Okay, so you've heard
that one before.
It isn't really fair,
you know that everything
breaks down eventually.
Just don't set me out
with the trash,
like some old tv set.

The warranty has expired, but I sincerely hope that you enjoyed our product

... And don't plant me
in some damn hole either.
Fucking buzzards
have made a cash-crop
out of planting the dead--
and you never get
anything to grow
that you can actually use...
Except for the start
of some bad zombie movies.

Just say good night, and turn off the lights...

Feed the dogs,
and tell the kids to be good.
You do not have to
tell me what I already know,
just as I knew
from the first time
that I met you
that you would be here.

Buy yourself a drink on the way home...

From me.
Don't get crazy though,
as any point that I may
have had in getting you drunk
is kind of going to end
like a cold shower.
This is not a happy ending,
but here we are...

Good night Baby-doll.