Love And Combat Poem by Lonnie Hicks

'I've had my sip of tainted time, ' she said
'wasted hours of questions
asking if you love me
perched in some Pity Pub
on hard benches
listening to old country tunes
red dress on
heart like a fist
my best face in the bottom of a glass.

And yet you still had a hold me
like grandma's faded crystal
you held me in your hands
and drank so deep of my youth
drained it to the very last drop,
spilling lots


And now you back sitting here looking for another sip.
Call me stupid
but I am gonna let you have it

to see if I taste the same;
cause so much of me
was taken away with you
I need to see if I can get it back.'

He said
'You roped me, hog-tied me, and in 10 seconds I was down
to where you my hostage pretty soon ruled me the outlaw
and its been that way since I first put my lips out for your sideways kiss,
proving that love and combat do mix.

Since I left there's been no one else; you ruined me for anything else.'

She paused.
She looked at him and said 'Are you saying you want to come back? '

'I'm saying.' he said
'I want a taste of those lips like a thirsty man wants water.'

She said:
'You ain't changed. Still got that hunger I like.'

'Lets do Scotch.' he said wrapping those long bow legs of his around the bar stool, smelling like he smelled, that smell once again invading her memory of the mattress in the flat-bed truck and night time stars.