Tag Archives: Romance

on romance

best left unspoken
company, comfort, laughter
more precious than gold

~

n.b. There is too much said, too often. We all risk becoming amateur psychologists. Is it not better to go with the flow? I am a slow learner, I fear, but keen to learn.

n.n.b. I just realised my picture contains two flotation rings…try not to read anything into that, nor to the fact it’s a picture taken on a ferry across a wide river, nor that I had to pay the lone ferryman for two souls to be transported to the far bank…

CLP 04/04/2022

Around Midnight

timing was never more important

than opportunity when hungry

we ate out, or would grab something

maybe just an amuse-bouche

at the bus shelter, a first course perhaps

irrespective of weather

because hungry is no respecter of climate

we always ate together

we rarely went without without

in sun, the rain, the snow

until naturally our routines began to drift

into more regular meal routines

before economy and fate peeled us apart

eventually

I returned one midnight

to oranges, not as a ravenous teenager

body craving any food or fruit every hour

these midnight oranges were rarer

at first a self-indulgent treat

until our segmentation complete

meant for awhile midnight oranges

were the only food

that I had to eat

~

n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty Two prompt: metonymy – midnight oranges. Good luck looking that up.

~

CLP 22/04/2021

On Valentine’s Day

London, Paris, Rome

Where ever you are I hope

Your love’s with you too

~

CLP 14/02/2021

On Memory ii

We at tower top

blue mist lines of distant hills

Il duomo bells

~

CLP 05/01/2021

On Numbers 2 (ii)

There are plans afoot

To send a couple moonward

Very romantic

~

n.b. 2024 is the year that Project Artemis is scheduled to launch. Who are the lucky couple? Follow this fascinating project with NASA.

CLP 26/10/2020

Hotel 4**** (221 Reviews)

The lawn immaculate as Mary
The Cedar of Lebanon adorns the garden
Gifts of shade and shelter beneath its boughs
Verandah a place of repose
Guests read piously in wicker chairs
The chapel home to a magnificent pipe organ
Through stained-glass windows
Pews reverentially curve around the high altar
A place of celebration and prayer
A modest Christian retreat

I had arrived late, ruck sack dusty
At this Internet-located
Recommended overnight stop
Where you had checked-in earlier
Met with an eye-brow of surprise
That two guests with different chromosome compositions
And un-familial surnames
Booked just one room
Albeit a room allocated in the annex
Not in the elegant mansion house

A room located past the pond
Through the back of the garden
Up creaky stairs to an improvised corridor
Above the old stable block
With steps that go up a quarter-flight
Then down a half-flight
Past the showers and wash rooms
With wooden doors like slatted gates
That do not reach the floor

Our room is interesting
Wall striped-paper
Dazzling light bulbs
A handbasin
A wall mirror that reflects from my chest down
Two small single beds with sheets and blankets
Yards apart
A retreat from the time of Dunkirk?
No continental comforts here

You laugh at my crest-fallen face
The room, the short beds
Your hearty response lifts my gloom
The only proper reaction to this
Pre-booked, no-refunds, high season
Imagined romantic rendezvous
That belies its online presence

We went to supper down the town
Where a street fight starts
Between two groups of over-heated youths
Brawling outside the open window of the restaurant
I call for assistance and follow the barman out
He breaks it up with a strong voice and local knowledge of names and faces
We have finished our meal before the police arrive

All is done and dusted, the street long-empty
When we walk back under the early summer blossoms
Beside a stream running in the stone gutter, between the path and road
We climb stairs, chuckles renewed at this place
Choose not to move the beds together
The night is too warm, we too full of dinner
We kick off blankets and sleep

Until woken by blinding sunlight and inquisitive wasps
Nested outside the window
And now exploring the room
Which also vibrates with the heavy throb of diesel engines from day-trip coaches
With their cigarette smoking drivers coughing and comparing tachograph notes in high volume above the rumbles
While they wait for passengers keen for a pilgrimage
To a local pagan shrine, like Stonehenge, Silbury, Avebury, or Glastonbury Tor
Or perhaps just the Cobb at Lyme Regis, then Weymouth for the beach

“Not so funny now, is it?” I suggest
You lift an eyelid, shift sleepily from your bed
Slide yourself under my sheet
And wiggle up close, laughing again
Pointing out that the mirror is now just the right height

.

n.b. www.napoiwrimo.net Day 28 prompt: bedroom.

Christopher Perry

28th April, 2020

Bitter

Not all almonds hold

Hydrocyanic Acid

Spit! Cleanse. Taste returns

.

CLP 18/04/2020

Wishful Thinking

One pin

For two pins

I would grab my passport

Run to the airport

Get on that plane

Find you

Bring you home

For two pins

.

CLP 08/01/2020

Obfuscation

“Will you marry me?”

He asked and she replied

“What mean you by this?”

.

n.b. A simple proposal, at the sound of it, but is the real meaning of the question clear? What motives underlie the request for a hand in marriage? Is the wording a phrase designed to obscure and confuse, or crystal clear and hence the associated diamond ring?

CLP 25/02/2019