“Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em” was the refrain from an all-too-almost-irreverent time when you carried twenty Marlboro Class A’s in a polished silver-plated case and a Zippo that reeked of butane and flint and you would pocket the half-smoked butts “for later” and maybe you had a whiskey flask in one pocket of your camel hair coat and a dog eared copy of “Modern Man in Search of a Soul” in the other, and you’d ravenously wolf down meat pies washed away with pints of beer and you mocked the old people and their wayz cause “you’ll be young forever” and were suddenly satisfied while you watched a cold rain overshadow the darkening World Outside as you talk all-too-important aspects of Politicks & Philosophies with The Others and feel the haze of the beer and whiskey and then, as if in a dream, you see her near the edge of the bar and she’s still in her coat albeit unbuttoned which opens as she moves and there’s a hint of that one cashmere sweater of hers, and the folds of her tartan skirt, and her crimson-embossed lips show smile when she’s cognizant she has your attention, and a teal scarf is haphazardly wrapped ‘round the smooth skin of her neck, and you wonder how long she’s been here and, as she nears, you smell her perfume and she whispers on soft smoky breath and you hear yourself saying “God, yes” and she laughs as she hooks her arm in yours, her hands still gloved, and her young heart-shaped face flashes a playful then serious look, and you kiss and she tastes bitter but familiar, and the two of you go out into the evening Winter street and the rain, and you both run, her heels clicking on the hard pavement, and a flash of Lightning in the din of a dull sky that threatens snow and is beset for Love and then the Thunder overhead as you and she, hand-in-hand, enter the warm brightly lit and plush hotel lobby.
And quietly, with a crimson ting on your cheeks that is something akin to a virginal blush, you ask for a warm, but not-so-brightly lit room. And her hand presses in yours…and you’re both at the threshold.
And it’s love.
While Outside, everything grows weary, and the snow suddenly blizzards, and the World ices hard.
And dies just a little.
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