ABSENT AT HAPPY HOUR -by guest author- Rp Verlaine

A spiral dance with straw

between gin and ice

and soul.

Mirth, faint

laughter disembodied

trespasses forfeited

relics all.

Recall of conversations

cut by half

our parlor trick with

words/threats

only partly veiled.

“Pretend I don't

exist like always,”

she said.

More now

than ever with

her gone, it's true.

I take a final drink

before the lacerating

cold goes through wounds

with a death whistle.

_________________________________________________________________

Absent at Happy Hour

by Rp Verlaine

Rp Verlaine lives in New York City.

He has an MFA in creative writing from City College.

He taught in New York Public Schools for many years.

His first volume of poetry- Damaged by Dames

& Drinking was published in 2017, and another – Femme Fatales

Movie Starlets & Rockers in 2018. A set of three e-books

titled Lies From The Autobiography vol 1-3 were published from

2018 to 2020. His newest book, Imagined Indecencies,

was published in February 2022. He was nominated for a

Pushcart prize in poetry in 2021 and 2022.