Substitution

I was praying (literally) for inspiration for a poem, as I haven't written anything in such a long time but so wanted to create, give back in some small way, when my dear friend Lexi texted me regarding a decision we've both been facing, and my prayer was answered. This is the result.


Alexis was once in love,
Deeply and passionately.
Sometimes the bright spark
Of sawdust caught aflame
Leads to a steady, lasting blaze.

But it usually vanishes.

With Alexis, things had
to end abruptly.
Her dazzlement remained.

Years later, she flirts unashamed
With the Rockies of Colorado,
With the Smokies of Tennessee.
But their eyes do not glint
In the sunlight
Quite the same way.
Their wisdom
Cannot make her cock her head
The way his could.
Their grins do not flip
Her heart in wild ecstasy.

A gas fireplace could not burn
Her soul comparably.

Surely another can be found!
Surely the good Lord
Created a replacement!

Alexis searches and prays
For a substitute
For the snowy mountain caps of home.

Someone strolls in casually
With a smirk and a wink.
Mountains of bronze,
Skies of azure.

Alexis leans in,
Rests her head,
Ignores the doubt.
Safety nets smell
Like cologne
And gas fires
And hot desert air.

Somehow it happens.
In the night Alexis is unsettled.

In the night Alexis slips away.
He woke up to empty sheets
But does not miss her.

She watches the sunrise to her right
As she drives to who-knows-where.
But the steering wheel knows
Somehow.

Who said truer words
Than Dorothy
When she clicked her heels?

Alexis returns to the one she loved,
The one no one could replace.
Alexis comes home
To the only one
Who could ever be home.

She knocks and he lets her in.
And there she stays.

Gray skies and white mountains
Were never sweeter.
There the fire brightly burns,
Inexhaustible.


God bless.