Scene from a Farewell Party

"Scene from a Farewell Party"

She had waited all evening. Waiting for the time to be right. Or a miracle. But he stood on the other side of the room. He never walked her way. And she knew he left in the morning for New York. This night was her last chance, but her last chance for what? She didn't know. She couldn't begin to hope, but she knew the perfect words she wanted to hear.

Most everyone else was dancing. Hopping up and down to a manic pop single, but the beat of her heart took all her attention as it drummed a rhythm of fear and hope.

All the way through high school and college, the time had never been right. She had been with Kent and then with Richard. He had been with Laurie, Joanne, and Jenny. But now they were both unattached. What kept this from being the time?

How long was she supposed to wait to hear those perfect words? Or had their time already passed? She knew some things got lost. People grew up. Passions faded. A fire couldn't smolder forever.

They had exchanged glances. Significant, perhaps, but nothing more. They had never been close friends, just friends of friends. They had kissed once in a gazebo in a summer rainstorm, but his cell phone had rang. Joanne was looking for him. Richard was looking for her. She ran all the way back to her cousin's house, soaked to the skin and spent the rest of the vacation suffering from a cold and hiding in her room. He tried to call her several times, but she never took his calls. They hadn't spoken since.

Another song started, more frantic than the last one, but she couldn't hear it over the slow drum in her chest.

Somehow she pulled away from the wall. Somehow she took a step and then another. Four steps, and she reached in the middle of the room. If this had been a movie, he would have met her halfway, but it wasn't. Among the dancers she was alone.

The next step was the hardest. But the rest were easy. She reached him, put out her hand, touched his shoulder.

He turned, his ready smile fading as he saw her.

She couldn't wait anymore. Now. Now before her courage failed her.

She pulled his face to hers and kissed him.

If it had been a movie, he would have laughed and kissed her endlessly. He would have said, "I love you," the perfect words she wanted.

But he didn't.

He looked at her for a long moment.

Too long.

Panic filled her. This wasn't a movie. This was real life, and their time had passed. She was a fool.

But then he reached out and crushed her against him.

He said, "What took you so long? I've been waiting forever."

As it turned out, those words were perfect, too.

(Copyright 2017 by Stephen B. Bagley. All rights reserved.)

Passion

Passion
By Stephen B. Bagley

If I could, I would seduce you
into poetry. I would run
feathery words over the bare
shoulders of your muse, touch gently
the moist secret places of your
metaphors, delicately brush
your lips with similes and plunge
rhythm and rhyme into your soul.

I would take you past the threshold
where passion and structure meet, where
one image means the difference
between indifference and glory.
If I could, I would do these things
and do them long and do them well
until when you heard poetry,
you would gasp, don’t stop oh don’t stop.

Excerpt from Undying by Stephen B. Bagley & Gail Henderson. 

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. 

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Pagan

Pagan
By Stephen B. Bagley


And then she said into the stillness:

I will not be guilty anymore.
You can keep your original sin,
your pretty garden, your sly serpent.
They can suffer for Adam if they wish.

But I will weep no longer for Eve.
Keep, too, your tree, the trap baited
with lovely fruit. I have sufficient
guilty knowledge to last my life.

Finally, do not think that you exile
me into the wilderness. I go
willingly. There, I will find honest
trees, wise beasts, and innocent waters.

And I will worship the earth and sky
with gentle dances of green rhythms.

Excerpt from Undying by Stephen B. Bagley & Gail Henderson. 

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. 

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Crawly

Crawly

By Stephen B. Bagley

Our

scientists

say we annually

eat one pound of bugs

Our open snoring mouths attract

them, these many-legged insects

They drop, squirm, fly, scurry,

crawl, skitter, and fall inside

I think about what they

think about our caverns as

they descend, are ingested, 

digested by the moist dark

they sought for safety and

how like them we are

as we crawl toward

things that will

finally end

us

.

Excerpt from Undying by Stephen B. Bagley & Gail Henderson. 

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. 

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Turn the page

Closing The Book

By Stephen B. Bagley

It surprised me when I swept off

all the books on the shelf. I thought

I had long since spent my passion

in purchasing your faithless heart.

You feel uncertain of our life,

you tell me. What you mean is your

better love than me may still be

out there. Why settle for less here?

So go. Leaving is how you show

how little you care, how little

you understand the rarity

of love in this non-fiction world.

If this were a story, you would

come back broken, and I would let

you love me or even better

introduce you to my new love.

Since this is not, I will pick up

the scattered books and set them back

on the shelf, being careful to set

yours to one side to box later.

.

Excerpt from Undying by Stephen B. Bagley & Gail Henderson. 

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. 

Purchase Undying at Amazon

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