DEP POEM
Rainstorm Proposal
Nathan’s Heartfelt Confession
Nathan leaned against the corner
of the living room window.
He observed thick stacks
of evergreen trees
shroud the river below.
Sprinkles rippled as clouds
released a drizzle,
turning into a downpour.
Nathan’s tears splashed
into his wineglass.
The purity of nature’s vulnerability
to get wet and nude, pulled
at something in his self-deprecation.
Nathan’s attempts to live
amongst Ellie’s heated passion,
begged for more than dirty talk
under a moonlit walk, stepping
over gold and red crisp leaves,
through a cemetery
of ideas better left dead, buried.
Every false start had burned
Nathan’s talking points to ashes.
His words lived beyond
fate’s second-guessing suggestions.
Nathan watched, but he didn’t listen,
to Ellie tell him what to do
and how to take
lousy advice to heart.
Nathan’s smile made up
for the sparkle in her eyes.
Nathan’s eyes had one target
in mind: Ellie’s love locked
in a chest of redemption.
But Ellie ripped wide open
the wounds he bandaged
since last September.
At home, Nathan had his bags packed,
ready to step into a world
of his own making.
But he had nowhere to go,
and he had no one
waiting for him to arrive.
Nathan’s run from love
wouldn’t last without gas.
His thoughts went back over
and forth baked
in a revelation,
nothing revolutionary.
He lived to die, but here Ellie,
wanted them to relax and breathe
a life of them sipping wine on a deck,
overlooking a river that rippled
the sun’s reflection
Nathan set his wineglass on the coffee table
and moved across the beige living room.
He gripped the pine rail to scale the oak stairs,
and Ellie met his heart in a different light
to break his pride just in time to tell her
the fear that spilled over his soul
like a man stranded in a rainstorm
scared him more than admitting
what he couldn’t take back.
Nathan couldn’t take back that he loved her.
And Ellie couldn’t believe it took
so long for him to admit
what she heard him say in his sleep.
The couple embraced
and moved outside, kissing in a rainstorm
and made her wet in a sundress.
He pulled off his white T-shirt
and his defined chest had her bite
her lower lip.
He asked her what he’d wanted
to ask her since they met five years
ago, promising their friendship
would remain that,
but his proposal drew tears,
and a ring placed on her finger.
Ellie said yes, and Nathan
weathered the storm
of his insecurity.
(© 2024 AC)
(Amazon Kindle, Spillwords, The Writers Club)
Other posts at Dancing Elephants Press
✍ — Published by Libby Shively McAvoy at Dancing Elephants Press. Click here for submission guidelines.
