Drunken Silence: Closing Time Poem by Windsor Guadalupe Jr

”Close your eyes! ”
She said, with her
Emollient voice
And just there,
She shunned the world,
Pulled the curtains
And the lonely, morose
Trains sleeping in the
Stations at 11: 30 in
The evening slumbered
With churlish grins.

I closed my eyes
Mindlessly,
And felt a dank caress
On my cheek,
A taut on my fingers:
A crazed entwining
Of hands.
Scent pressing
Upon my neck,
My lips that reeked of
Liquor and the pale night.

I don’t know why my
Eyes were closed
But I can feel
Her: the yellow light
Of the avenue
Settling in like
The nuisance -
An insidious quartet
Singing songs of
Sweet melancholia.

The turmoil of the streets receded:
From pandemonium
To serenity,
Ruckus to reticence
And she did too.

I am left with the
Street lamps that were
Flickering.
She was gone
In an instant -
Such harsh fate
Or harsher relevance
And maybe,
Just maybe,
The harshest of
All disparaging irrelevancy.

I didn’t know
Where she went
Underneath the stark night
But all I know is that

The bars are closed,
The streets are satiated
With businessmen
And bashful ladies,
Life resumed

And I will never be
The same again -
I am left
With the bar silence,
And total drunkenness.