After the Spell was Broken

She shook a look from her shoulders
And took a small glass from the shelf
The evening had slipped to indifference
A blink as he toasted her health.

The plates will be stacked in the morning
The binbags will split at the seams
As he slips from the bedroom unnoticed
A blot on a parchment of dreams

There were sighs hidden under her makeup
Airbrushing over her fears
Stumbling blindly through forests
The animal tracks of her tears

But he’s not a nature detective
He’s nothing natural at all
He’ll wander on back to his papers
And take the next telephone call

As the flowers flew over her shoulder
And the thorns caught into her thumb
The sky turned vicious and purple
A bruise on a circle of sun

After the spell was broken
After the path became clear
The lights shone down in the city
To wish her a better new year.

*The opening lines in the first and third stanzas are from Workshop prompts provided by Daniel Sluman at Cheltenham Buzzwords.

Chris Hemingway is a poet and singer-songwriter from Cheltenham. He has appeared recently at Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals, and self-published a collection, Cigarettes and Daffodils, in 2012.