Before All the Light Was Gone
I started drinking late in the afternoon
before all the light was gone
when the sun was still shining
making everything seem
warmer than it really was
I sat there in the kitchen
drowning in the silence
the table near the window
I sat there
drinking cold bottles of beer
until the room began to change
I leaned back in my chair
looked up at the ceiling
I saw a stain up there
I hadn’t noticed before
it looked like the face of a woman
I knew several years ago
she was a beautiful woman
with this big obnoxious laugh
it made me laugh
and I started thinking about
what she was doing now
but it was funny
when I realized she would be
almost as old as I am now
the last time I saw her
she was backing her car
slowly out of the driveway
giving me the finger
I stood by the front door
and I couldn’t hear it
but I knew by the look on her face
she was laughing
her big obnoxious laugh
filling up the whole car
James Babbs is a writer, a dreamer, a three-time loser and an all-around nice guy who just wants to be left alone. James is the author of Disturbing The Light(2013) & The Weight of Invisible Things(2013) and has hundreds of poems and a few short stories scattered all over the internet.
Bindweed Magazine 