BETTER LEFT UNSAID - Spoken Word by David Randall Curtis

I have a poetry chapbook loaded with illustrations that comes with 2 dvds of me doing spoken word.
It is available at: http://www.filmbaby.com/films/4408
--or private message me. Email is: b8888a@aol.com


This poem is dedicated to xxxild and efchellion669

BETTER LEFT UNSAID

The bar closed
and when I got home
I found her naked on the sheets
with her pale,
glow-in-the-dark skin
softly illuminating the room.

I thought I heard her stir.

"Are you awake?" I asked.

"Um... you didn't even sing the words right,"
she said while curling into a ball.

I tapped her on the shoulder.

"What do you mean?
I wasn't singing."

She remained silent.

"Honey, this is going to drive me crazy.
What are you talking about?"

"What time is is?" she mumbled.

"Almost three."

She propped herself up and shouted,

"How the Hell am I supposed to know what I'm talking about!
It's three in the morning for Christ's sake!
Go to bed!"

She resumed the fetal position
and began to breathe deeply.

I watched her for a while,
then lulled myself to sleep
humming a half-remembered Beatles song

--slightly out of tune,

making up the lyrics
as I went along.

(David Randall Curtis)

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[liz1060]

Let me guess -- "I get by with a little help from my hand" -- lol! I enjoy this sort of slice of life vignette that you do, David, like a stage scene or movie clip -- always infused with your wicked humor!

[DavidRandallCurtis]

liz: ha ha... actually... these days... I've been getting a LOT of... *cough* "help" from my hand... as Woody Allen once said, "Hey, don't knock masturbation.. it's sex with someone I love!" :P

[tinySpectacle]

It's great how in the middle of all this disfunction and debauchery, you can make a reader care--both for what this relationship lacks and for what it has. This poem articulates something so tender and yet feels so grimy.

Or maybe that's just that I haven't showered today.

[8journey8]

Your work yanks me back to an earlier time. You define working class pathos.

My first husband had a love affair with liquor. This happened when I lived in Chicago. He became a fixture at one of the local bars, and would drag in at obscene hours to disturb my sleep. He wanted to talk about how his drinking was my fault. Eventually I divorced him. But had he produced a single poem illustrating our predicament with the clarity and humor of your offering, I would probably have let him stay! Hah!

[loveupskirts]

i love this, without art we are nothing

[RogerStevensPoet]

Enjoyed it - although more than a little peculiar. And your background's getting darker too - and underlit?

[geoffreythecat]

this is splendid******

[Lycan7lover]

i never get tired of you!

[MzSkribble]

Some things are better left unsaid, huh?

*chuckle* so true...

And I love how she not only never said what she claimed to not know, but how you made it so you were the ONE...either way.

You're a very clever man, Mr. Curtis... and I dig the shit out of you :-)

[MsWriteNow]

I love how you're able to capture the apathy in relationships, while portraying the sensitivity of the narrator through humor. 5*/fav

[blastedgoat]

sweet :D i'm so happy when i get to start my day listening to some good poetry! love the ending!

[taids]

Damn, I missed this one in my inbox! :-(

[IGrazor]

Absolutely loved this one David.

"How the Hell am I supposed to know what I'm talking about! It's three in the morning for Christ's sake!"

At the risk of sounding chauvinistic that is a shining example of female logic (sorry ladies, but it's true). ;oP

[ParanoidAsian]

Couldn't move - it was that intense. I'm gonna have to watch it again though, I feel there is some hidden meaning towards the end.