Tea Time Revised

Tea time and talk with the Grim Reaper

1

“H…hold on” I croak. Too shy

To touch those midnight robes

I stare. My spent decades now

Piggy-banked in cracked palms.

2

He doesn’t turn, but he stops.

Trendless bellbottom-flares

Obscure his hidden feet.

My white Reeboks sit transfixed.

3

My nervous feet skitter towards,

Slow-moving as child’s time

And stop at his backs, hidden

Under the dress of late dusk.

4

“W…would you care for tea?” I ask

Hoping to see his rubbed-red face.

He shakes his head. No footstep

No turn towards me nor away.

5

His back angled at exact point

Where no mirror could fathom

My question of his eyes, my

Wish of a child’s peek.

6

Finally my age and curiosity win.

Now or never. And with raging,

Fierce opiates weaving my veins

I rip off that hideous hood.

7

Years ago, time half-forgotten.

A virgin night. Old at Seven, I glared at

The countless stains of bronzed blood,

Trails up dirtied sleeves to those eyes.

8

That night when mine, muddy and salted

Fought the smoky winter air. One quick

Meet of our eyes as he exited my home,

A dead world of black cinders and ash.

9

“Does he still remember mine?” I wonder

As they sweep the frozen sky into

The forlorn stare of a young girl’s

So different, but eyes the very same.

Note: Something was wrong with the html, so I added numbers in between to organize and separate each stanza. Anyway, this is my edited version. I think it turned out better than I had previously thought, although perhaps still a shadow of my original intent.