The Old Lone Tree - Valentine's Day Poem 2

I come home early

and the house is empty

I put the roses down

and go into the kitchen

No one's there.

I open the fridge and lunch greets me

with a note:

"Your favourite :-)"

I smile

It's not the first one she has given me.

I pocket the note and tuck in

I don't finish the meal for the quiet is unusual

Where is she?

I peer into the garden and see the flowers

tendered to by her loving hands

I stroke the curtains by the window

picked by her good taste

I then see the kitchen that has served

a lifetime of nourishment.

The dent in her chopping board 

the bald patch of her wok

the laundry dried and collected in a pile.

They smell of her favourite Lavender

It's all the cologne I've ever needed.

Outside the air is still

Evening has come and all is quiet

Even the crickets don't speak

What is going on?

I sit and wait. But no one comes

Soon night falls and our kitchen light

is the only yellow in the night.

I sit like that for what seem like an age

as the weather outside changes from 

Spring to Summer to Autumn to Winter

I see things grow, flower and then die

I see myself young again, laughing, partying

graduating, getting my first job, earning my first million. 

I grow fat and then thin then old

I sit alone in an expensive car parked by a big house

I have all the things I dream about

But just as I am old and dry

I feel hollow inside

So, this is how an old lone tree feels

Desperately bleached and hard.

A door opens and suddenly the world outside returns

I am back in the kitchen with my dinner.

My love walks in

She is smiling and holding a box

I grab her waist and hold her tight

I nudge my cheek into the softness of her flesh 

It is familiar, her waist, her shape

I hate to let go but I don't want to seem foolish

Is everything all right, she asks

I blink a tear away and smiles

So you found the present, I say

Uh huh, she winks as she says this

You know I hate expensive presents

I know, I reply, sheepish.

She unwraps the box and I fish the smiley from my pocket

I drop it in with the rest

She looks in and a thousand smileys beam back at her

Oh, you've kept them, she says, tears welling in her eyes

We hug and then kiss

Words unnecessary

The world outside grows quiet again 

and dim

For there is now only the two of us
As I taste her softness and she mine
I know I shall never be an old lone tree

- by TC Lai


Next: A Need, A Want, A Desire