Sad and in denial, Dean sneaks in Tina’s yard,
Eyes peeled he sits silent, sips gin,
peering in as Tina gets tea ready:
steak and leeks and peas.
It isn’t Dean’s tea.
It is late and Dean is tired
yet sits and listens and spies
til... Stan enters -
Gentle Stan Tyler -
Peter Tyler's lad.
Seeing Tina’s eyes sparkle,
Seeing Tina kiss Stan
Dean’s denial splinters
Dean realises, at last,
Tina is Stan’s.
Dean’s sanity depletes at seeing gentle Stan
eat Tina’s steak, Tina’s leeks, Tina’s peas
Serenity elapses and Dean in anger grasps at
An altered destiny; a realigned end.
Tina lays a kiss at Stan’s ear and
Dean’s despair deepens.
Dirty nails sink in skin til it stings
And Dean rests eyes
Desperately seeking a Tina past
A Tina, resplendent and Dean’s...
Dean drinks.
Stan and Tina sit and sip and talk
til desire deepens and Tina leaps...
Dean stands, angry,
in a gin spin.
Tina’s pedestal is stained and
yet desire lingers.
Dean spits it at sky.
Tina in silk pants and Stan in less
As Dean like a snake slides in darkness
Sprints, silent as a sniper.
Tina and Stan kiss and kiss and kiss.
Dean tries key and enters,
lips in an insane grin as
Tina gasps. Stan yelps, naked as Dean stands
And sneers steel raised.
“Dean,” Tina says, and
Dean sees stained pedestals
As Tina stands pleading.
Stan takes a trainer and rises,
slaps at Dean, inept yet taking risks easily.
Dean grasps at trainer and
Stan raises knee
splits Dean’s lip and grins til
sanity splinters and Dean strangles Stan
takes steel and strikes and strikes
Rises like a king as Stan kneels and spits red.
Tina sinks, repeating Stan, Stan, Stan...
Dean grips palid Stan and,
stares at Tina’s tears
Asks, “any regrets dear?” and
Tina, seeing Dean isn’t sane sits silent like
Stan is silent
lying in red like slain pig.
Dean, panting sits,
Tired in seeking a Tina past
Dean raises tired eyes, and sees
at last, a sign:
Nestled in darkest sky,
Despite Dean slaying Stan
despite Tina's stained pedestal
A single star glistens.
Dean grins at it and sips,
seeing Tina's altered destiny.
Comments
jlb | April 26, 2009 - 14:53
This is brilliant. There are no other words. Well, there probably are & you could probably make a whole poem out of them :O)
And you saved the best words for the end too! Excellent work!
lenchenelf | April 27, 2009 - 00:26
Very impressed; what inspired you to do this ? atb Lena
chelseyflood | April 27, 2009 - 09:07
Thanks jlb. It still needs quite a lot of work but hopefully it'll get there.
And lenchenelf, it was for Telltales, a reading night I run in Cornwall. The theme for this volume is Desperately Seeking, so I started playing around with it. I just hope I have time to get it into better shape as I'm reading it out tomorrow.
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.
tcook | April 27, 2009 - 11:36
You'll bring the house down with this - very good indeed.
Dynamaso | April 29, 2009 - 01:40
I agree with jlb - this is brilliant. Hope the reading goes well. I don't think it needs any altering.
chelseyflood | April 30, 2009 - 15:09
Thanks tcook and Dynasmo. It was fun to read, though a bit of a tongue twister... Glad you enjoyed it.
Curse of 222 | May 7, 2009 - 01:15
i'm a little late to the party, but it's never to late for "wow!"... this is fantastic...break-neck pacing and twisting words...i can see where this would read well aloud...
fantastic!
jason
Curse of 222 | May 7, 2009 - 01:16
oh, forgot to mention that i love the title (the very long title)
jason
Cavalcaderl | November 16, 2009 - 22:14
New Chelsey Flood
Congratulations Cherry. I read
this so recognised in the Big issue
when T.Cook was Abctales Guest Edit.
Well done and to all.October 12-18th
No 868 and all brilliant.Jennifer Pickup
Mark Brown and all and Tony Cook and others.
julie x cavalcader (;-
penandpaperdreams | March 20, 2010 - 15:13
so good i've read it four times now and still want to read it again! I'm new to abc and work like this is why I joined, just brilliant.