Next year, we said,
we’ll celebrate. There will be chocolate again—
and peace.
We’ll sleep entwined,
the tangled sheets, so satin-fine without a single patch,
and scented only with love.
Year after year, we said it–and believed—
and now,
there’s a chicken roasted brown
as you imagined on a gold-rimmed china platter,
at the table, there’s real bread—
with sweet creamery butter—
but tears salt my wine,
as I gaze at your empty chair,
and untasted, the meal we’ll never share.
For dVerse, Sarah has asked us to write a poem about “Valentines that didn’t happen.” So, I’ve gone all maudlin imagining perhaps some other version of my spy couple.
Yesterday and today: Merril's historical musings 
So sad, but beautiful at the same time! The lines of this poem say so much…the photo really resonates with the poetry also.
Absolutely right!
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Linda! (I thought I had replied, but don’t see it here.) I thought the image went so well with it, too.
I loved your poem. The imagery keeps it from crossing the maudlin line. Have you read the book Western Wind by John Frederick Nims? It introduced me to the difference between sentimentality and genuine emotion in poetry. “Next Year” is genuine emotion.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment, Liz.
No, I haven’t read the book, but thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome, Merril. Western Wind was the first creative writing textbook I was assigned in college. It was incredibly enlightening.
It’s great that it was so helpful!
I don’t have any formal creative writing education–and not very much in literature either.
I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to pursue the educational path I did. I also took a lot of history courses.
That’s wonderful. I took a few literature and history courses as an undergrad, but I was an early childhood and elementary education major then. 😀
I didn’t know that! My mother was an early childhood development major.
Interesting! I taught nursery school, and then went into a doctoral history program. I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up, but I think poet is the answer. 😉
I would say that you have arrived at your grown-up profession now. 🙂
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Can you hear that? That sound of breaking pieces? Yes, there. My heart. Let me pick up the pieces after reading this heart-breaker of a beauty.
Hahaha. Thank you so much, Dale! 💙
So well done… 🙂
🥰
“…the meal we’ll never share.”
Oy.
Thank you.
Poignant and so beautiful…
Oh gee, that was poignant.
Thank you so much.
Whoa…so sad. This is beautiful, Merril.
Thank you so much, Jill.
How sad with the ending: the meal we’ll never share.
Thank you, Grace.
That’s who I immediately thought of when I read the first words. (K)
Interesting! Thank you, Kerfe.
Heartbreaking
Thank you very much.
Welcome
so good because it’s so real
Thank you. That’s very kind.
Well….that reached and pulled…one physically feels that loss……the things we say…powerful verse, very well done…
Thank you very much, Ain. I’m pleased it touched you.
good ❤️
Exactly why, we shouldn’t, wait, to share what we have, with others, and to, not wait, until, we are, capable enough…
Yes, exactly. Thank you.
My goodness me. Beautifully sad. Not maudlin at all
Oh! Thank you for that, Derrick. That kind of reaction from you means it really did hit hard. 💙
X
Sad, real, authentic with on-point imagery. Don’t wait. . . use the good china, even. . . now is the time. Lovely, Merril!
Thank you so much, Marian! 💙
I read the spies into this, Merril: sorry to read of a heartbreaking end! 💔
Thanks so much, Ingrid.
Well, if it is the spies, then it’s probably somewhere in the middle. 😏
Love this heartfelt story Merrill!
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Thank you very much! 💙
This is a real tear-jerker! So sad and so believable.
Thank you! 😊
Oh, Merril. I’ve just read back to back books about the Holocaust – and this coming after that has made me cry. I think it was the butter that did it – those intense details show grief more than any tellilng can.
I’m pleased (and sorry) to have made you feel so much with this, Sarah!
I also recently read a book–a novel–set during the Holocaust, and I think something about the Nazis eating butter while the local population was starving must have stayed in my mind.
Such a hollow feeling to having something oneself that would have been twice as meaningful shared with love. You capture that lost feeling, of being bereft and alone in the world, in all your meticulous details. Infinitely sad, because we have all felt this, I think, or will. Beautiful poem.
Thank you so much for your very thoughtful comment. I appreciate it.
I am literally swooning right now 💝💝 this poem has everything .. from bittersweet ache to nostalgic moments that accompany the wine .. really beautiful writing, Merril!
That’s very kind, Sanaa. Thank you!💙
Awwww. Sad but very well done! ❤️
Thank you, Charlotte! ❤️
How much sadness is that?… when all of the sudden you have means it’s only yours ti have alone.
Thank you. Yes, it’s very sad. I imagine it happens often.
What would happen to hope if we didn’t make plans? So sad when they’re never realized.
Yes, you’re so right. Thank you.
This is wonderfully sad Merril! I love the story and the ending!
Thank you, Dwight!
The empty chair is such a potent symbol.
Thank you very much!
You’re welcome.
There is something sad about the missed opportunity and the lonely meal. This captures it so beautifully.
Thank you very much!
It can be all too easy to live for a tomorrow that never comes. Your conceit encapsulates the complexities of love’s promise and reminds us that every love story ends in tragedy (death).
Wow! That hit a bullseye in my heart!
Thank you! I’m pleased you felt it. 😊
I did feel it! ❤
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So sadly with reality!
Thank you.
Very sad and very true. Very very impressed by the perfect depiction of the scene. Well sad and deep. 💔
Thank you very much! 💙
This is heartbreaking. I absolutely love this. Shows the struggle of loving someone who passed . Beautiful
Thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comment!
Any time 🙂
“but tears salt my wine,” that part actually touched my heart.
Thank you very much.
I love this even though so poignant ❤😪
Thank you so much!