I can't believe you gave me flat seltzer

Berkshire County Cafe, July 17th, 2016
Wow! seltzer and Madeleines. She was journaling. It is so much easier to ask someone with pen in hand. She works at a local writing camp. She had been meaning to try the poetry prompt from writing camp. Was it: describe an ambivalent act of generosity? What did you get? A life-saving patch? A sweat-soaked T-shirt? I like this poem very much. It’s a mini-novel.

I can’t believe you gave me
flat seltzer.

After everything else, after all
After all, seltzer’s only job is to fizz.

After you told me “you have….
not a maturity, but an aliveness,
seldom found in one so young.”

But then when you left,
you listed to me all the reasons
like my broken family and other
weaknesses.

Seltzer devoid of bubbles is just
water.
Like empty words.

Like the time you intercepted me
on the way to the airport, to preempt
my escape.
Becuase you know that if I left,
your share of the burden would
increase.

You begged me – “whatever you do,
don’t cut him off.
He needs your love.”

But what about what I need?

The flat seltzer. The last betrayal.
When you couldn’t be bothered.
And I drank it anyway.

Read a poem by Alun C.

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