Love Poison Poem by Ted Sheridan

A first and then a second dollop of warm and delightful
spiced rum, swallowed from a shot glass and poured
down the chute, with only a modicum of inspiration
as a chaser; provided him the counterfeit courage
to face his fears and write for her what she had been
thinking all along. She had loved him when his hair
was much longer than his attention span and his fair
complexion tanned by a tropical sun smelled of coconuts
and passionate hot love…
A third and followed therein short order by a forth dollop
of properly aged and imported, rare and expensive rum,
which when dispatched down the hatch, with an acquired
and refined concentration; he was able to find the breath
to expel the many demons they both had chained and imprisoned
within the padded walls of their combined psyche. She loved him still,
no longer as her lover, but as her life partner in a journey to where
all roads must eventually lead….and to where in the end
everyone must go their own way into the great unknown…
It was at this juncture he wrote, “I must bid you my final fare-thee-well”
as the poison took its slow effect…

2008 © T Sheridan