Poetry Submission #1

Diary in Pieces: October 1996
A Poem By: Amy Alls

I fell in love this morning
On the cool, dewy concrete steps
In front of his apartment building
Painting his fingernails black
After he fumbled with the bottle and,
Frustrated, nearly gave up.

Not much talking the morning after
There was drinking at the party last night and
Our heads were still spinning from
The cider and the conversations
Deeply empty drunken musings over
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

His eyes were glazed over, but his words
So clever and eloquent and maybe it was because
I was drunk that I didn't hear one slur and
I can't remember them exactly, but they
Shape him forever in my eyes as
The hopeless romantic without any regret.

The moment this morning seemed so much longer
Than the short time it actually was
As if everything is burned into my memory
And will linger, but I've never been in love
Nor do I know if this is what love is,
But if it is love, I cherish it and will always.

I sleep now after a long night and morning
Of dreaming awake and living this life
Of a thousand hopes and a thousand goals
Never needing to know what is coming next
Never caring so much of the consequences of
This freedom of youth and belief in love.

This is the beginning of my past.