Premonition
by Michael R. Burch

Now the evening has come to a close and the party is over ...
we stand in the doorway and watch as they go—
each stranger, each acquaintance, each unembraceable lover.  

They walk to their cars and they laugh as they go,
though we know their bright laughter’s the wine ...
then they pause at the road where the dark asphalt flows
endlessly on toward Zion ...

and they kiss one another as though they were friends,
and they promise to meet again “soon” ...
but the rivers of Jordan roll on without end,
and the mockingbird calls to the moon ...

and the katydids climb up the cropped hanging vines,
and the crickets chirp on out of tune ...
and their shadows, defined by the cryptic starlight,
seem spirits torn loose from their tombs.

And I know their brief lives are just eddies in time,
that their words are unreadable runes
unlikely to stand in this waterlogged land
when their corpses lie ravaged and ruined ...

You take my clenched fist and you give it a kiss
as though it’s something to be loved,
and the tears fill your eyes, outshining the night
and all the stars ringed high above ...

and you whisper, "It's time that we went back inside;
if you'd like, we can sit and just talk for a while."
And the hope in your eyes burns too deep, so I lie
and I say, "Yes, I would," to your small, troubled smile.

I vividly remember writing this poem after an office party the year I co-oped with AT&T (at that time the largest company in the world, with a lot of office parties). This was after my sophomore year in college, making me around 20 years old. The poem is “true” except that I was not the host because the party was at the house of one of the managers. Nor was I dating anyone seriously at the time.

Keywords/Tags: premonition, foreboding, time, loss, death, office party, wine, laughter, shadows

i remember watching the sunrise with you
i couldn’t help
but get lost
in the depths of your eyes
tinted with the golden sunlight.
you felt forbidden.

i remember picking up
the glitter after the party
and every time our hands met
it felt like
i was touching paradise
but then i remembered
you were forbidden,
and i had been forbade.

Singing on the clouds
while they hold my hands
and we're looking into each other's
like we're some sort of a band.

A minute where I want to relive again
because it hurts when I remember
all of the things that we did together
and I tried to play it like a song
but it kept turning into a hum.

This state is where I know who's bad
and who's good,
what's the purpose of a power
and realize who was my root.

I failed and I've won
yet, I still don't know who I am
because this is where I study feelings
and I learn love, I learn him, I learn her.

I was caught
and trapped in something big,
bigger than any of my emotions,
bigger than my words;
yes, I am caught in a country named love.

Every time he feels
like he's going down,
I'm spreading my wings
ready to fly down
and grab his hands
and bring him back,
back alive and trying to stay in his life.

Yes, my wings are my legacy
but I didn't say that I'm ready to grow
like a tree and become someone
that will shelter their shadow.

I know how to fly,
but every time I jump,
I pretend like I'm stupid
and fell to the ground
just because I don't want to be bigger
than who I am right now,
just because I don't want to be bigger
than where I am right now.

I’m singing my tune
cause it’s a great afternoon.
All these bad thoughts have me immune
so let’s blow up a balloon
and live like we’re in a cartoon.

There’s no time for a prune,
let’s have a big commune
at least the size of a platoon
and take ourselves to a nice saloon.
from there we’ll hit the lagoon
then maybe chill by the dune
where I just might swoon
from thinking this is too good to be true.

The way the music made her head sway-
effortless beauty
Each melody met her movements,
magnetically greeting each other,
as if this time and place,
this way and reason,
had been looking for her, her whole life.
The walls moved farther away from her,
everyone in the room stealing glimpses for themselves.
An aura protected by the frequencies of love,
her hands followed the curves of her own body.
Hands that gently tugged on her hair to connect with the intensity,
forbidden sensuality of the eyes, mind, and body.
Beware of the girl who creates a story out of a moment,
she holds the power to turn raindrops to hurricanes,
and a kiss to a lifetime.

Crowded bar
Drink held in hand
Music blaring loud
Pretty sure my soul is ******
After the second round

Shot of whiskey down throat
One more to follow
Sea of ***** keeping afloat
Weightless with each swallow

Dizzy head
Thick and light
Clouded
Pulsing
And hazy
Tiredness drags down my sight
Legs relaxed and lazy

Warmth spreads throughout torso
Fingertips begin to tingle
Euphoria inside my brain grows
My neurons and serotonin mingle

Air heavy
Sweat and motion
Humid heat clinging to my skin
Around me is a blurred commotion
Logic and sense wearing thin

Tummy performing cartwheels
Whole place unbalanced and dark
Stool wobbly underneath my heels
Bartender pouring from a fifth of Monarch

Saturday night in a tiny town
Where everything else is just too far
So you find yourself driving the same road down
To the local nothing-better-to-do bar