Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Incidents

Ego

And you're telling me this today...", his anger is cold as he manipulates the Mustang around traffic lights and New York minutes. He can see she's apologetic as she begins to explain, "Honey please try and..." but he cuts her and a Volkswagen off simultaneously. "Please do not 'honey' me, its demeaning." She's a little taken aback at his response, but she knows this is all she'll get for a while. His anger is patient and volatile...and always painful. But her decision depended on his silence and his fury...his penetrating gaze and his ability to dissuade her knotted in the dance between the heart and the mind...

He makes the left turn towards JFK, mute with emotion and analysis. His walls are up and he's already questioning commitment and signs...his hope against pride, distance against month-long relationships. He pulls up in front of the terminal and drops her off, driving into the horizon pock-marked with planes, a quick and frosty goodbye...she, silhouetted against the evening tarmac glow...him, bundled up in November fog and rising temper...

Amber signals and road blocks toying with his restlessness, he gets on the highway, preoccupied with all that he should have said, and all that he didnt. 4 am conversations and romantic movies weighed against lonely comfortabilities and the ego, the battle wrapped in familiarity. His mind becomes clouded with the moments flitting by, each an impulse of his time, and the Mustang gathers speed to match thought. He wages the silent war inside, nanoseconds unto eternity, and he almost doesnt see the truck driver veer into his lane, just another nobody trying to get home amidst nachos and radio stations...

She hears the last call over the intercom and knows its time to board. She's waited three hours for the damn phone to ring, pride allowing her only the dignity of checking voice mail every ten minutes. Now as the last few minutes go by, a rushed past and a disordered present collide over and over in an attempt to make sense and reason, and she loses patience. She switches off the phone and walks away, making a silent promise not to weaken, not to make that first call...

4 comments:

!Teq-uila Del Zapata said...

nice one. man, full of subtleties. but i like previous more than this one.

Anonymous said...

Love the way you've written this one... Amazing word selection,expression of emotions...everything seems just perfect.
Like it even more because fortunately or unfortunately...this is something I so relate to...
Looking forward to other posts :)

Unknown said...

Speechless.. I got goosebumps..
I could relate to how I felt in June- the pride and the ego and the anger and the love... and there is so much more that you can't express in words..
A very nice post!
(Sometimes you just have to make that first call; and I feel blessed with the way things turned out.. but, every relationship is unique in its own way)

ViRUS said...

Views respected. As it is very much a possible reality, so accepted... but since Iam an optimist, the flow of events make me not to read it ever again!