I went back to the hotel

After you left

And watched the daylight

Break through the window,

Bleaching out the shadows

Under which I loved you.

I watched the last curl

Of smoke drift away

From the incense

You left burning.

Now I stand and stare,

Bearing the silence

Without speech or sighs,

Absent frown or smile.

The bedcovers lay

Where you last did,

And summon me

To smell you there.

But I can't touch this room again.

I sealed this memory when you left.

Because I find it hard to believe

I’ll taste your body and soul again.

—Larry Hallock

         Dayton Discord        

Another show folds and hits the road.

Tomorrow’s another nameless town—

New crowds to applaud you wildly,

More critics to single you out.

Anyone could see it would happen—

I told you, myself, to “just say when.”

And now, whatever it is that was us

Is all packed up with yesterday’s show—

You in a big truck on a new road…

Me in a Monday headed south.

Years have a way of blurring the past,

But I’ll always remember Dayton

For that extra long kiss

That I knew said “when.”

                                                     —Larry Hallock

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