DEFERRED ENLIGHTENMENT
by Cheryl L. Daytec
Love is patient, but should it be gullible, too?
Several minutes after the appointed time
A second resembles an ominous eternity
The gates are still gaping, bolts clutching
at the last hair-thin straws of their patience
The piqued microwave grudgingly stands by
to rescue carefully prepared food from cold
Sympathetic walls glow with motley reflections
Of her; he sees them with a content inner eye
Even the monochromatic curtains pirouette
With an endless stream of happy memories
He savors each one, each one, till they run out
The gardening magazine in his hand thickens
And the mundane articles seduce his attention
till his anxiety vanishes in the colorful pictures
Of course, she will arrive when she will arrive
But the gentle breeze from the open window
Diffuses a fraught whisper of rebuke, taunting,
Counting the big mugs of coffee he consumed
Counting the sticks of cigarette turned ashes
Counting the times he glanced at the clock
The times he dialed a number beyond reach
The many times he was let down in days past
Love made him forget the rudiments of math
Slowly, the wide room becomes too narrow
for the sudden flood of his tormented thoughts
The walls mutate into a boring vision of white
Till they morph into a brilliance of grim reality
With the speed of a lover tailing his beloved
He scurries to the long-agape wide gates
And locks them./ chytdaytec
