Body Heat | Teen Ink

Body Heat

August 17, 2011
By ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss


This morning I opened my eyes
To the glare of the morning sun
And the whir of a ceiling fan
Cutting like a knife through the silence.

I reached over and felt the spot--
The creases still there, the mattress still hot--
The you-shaped indent
Which I had come to take
For granted.

The covers feel like heavy silk chains
And I suffocate
On the memories of bygones and
Essence of you
That still fills this room.

Last night, I dialed your number
(Fingers trembling, ever so hesitantly, eyes aglow--)
Your voice, refreshing as the gentle wisp
Of a summer breeze
Answered, "Hello?"

I don't believe, in the years past,
Not for bad news, or prank calls, or telemarketers,
I have ever hung up the phone
Quite so fast.

I haven't touched my apartment
In the months gone by;
Haven't ventured outside, no--
I remain on standby,
Sleeping by the phone,
And sleeping alone,
In hopes that you will give some reply.

It's desperate, I know.
A hole of self-pity, stupid and naive
That continues to grow
Since you've taken your leave.

So I drown my sorrows in
The empty bottles of Patron,
and Molly Ringwald movies,
and soulful Boston songs
("I closed my eyes, and she slipped away..."
When did we begin to slip away?)

And I wait
and wait
and wait.

The author's comments:
This poem is about a person whose lover has left, perhaps a month, two months, five months ago, and they still cannot begin to get over it.

Their lovers' scent is in their bed, the memories still fresh. So what can you do?

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This article has 7 comments.


on Aug. 26 2011 at 6:21 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

The construing of self-pity would not have yielded such a result as this.

The 'shock' of being left behind; sometimes it stings greater than sadness and bitterness.


ambnyc SILVER said...
on Aug. 25 2011 at 1:00 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

Thank you! :)

on Aug. 25 2011 at 10:02 am
FutureSceneQueen BRONZE, Amherst, Ohio
4 articles 14 photos 32 comments

Favorite Quote:
Do what you love or die unhappy -m.shadows from avenged sevenfold

this is really good and very heartfelt and beautiful. so good.

ambnyc SILVER said...
on Aug. 22 2011 at 8:42 pm
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

Thank you for your feedback! I'm honored that you enjoyed the poem so much. :)

I wasn't sure if I should write another sad poem because there's so many. In essence, I was not trying to construe self-pity, but rather a person still trying to recuperate from the shock of being left.

Thanks again!


on Aug. 22 2011 at 8:21 pm
Thesilentraven PLATINUM, Mableton, Georgia
40 articles 2 photos 1632 comments

Favorite Quote:
"il piu nell' uno," (according to Emerson, an Italian expression for beauty)

"Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality" ~Emily Dickinson

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain"
~Kahlil Gibran

Ah! (deep sigh of relief and passion); this was what I was looking for when I started reading poems on here a few minutes ago. The emotion was so real, and so there, that I couldn't help but enter inside the sad story which you crafted. The tragedy of the poor person left behind, who still hopes that the relationship can return to life, or perhaps imagine that it never died. But your verses were creative as well, which always helped. I especially liked the phrase "you-shaped indent," perhaps on life as well as the mattress. Well written, indeed!

ambnyc SILVER said...
on Aug. 22 2011 at 11:59 am
ambnyc SILVER, Rego Park, New York
6 articles 0 photos 133 comments

Favorite Quote:
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss

Thank you! And of course I will.

on Aug. 22 2011 at 11:11 am
Blue4indigo PLATINUM, Sturbridge, Connecticut
24 articles 0 photos 382 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'd rather be sorry for something that I did than for something I didn't do.
-Red Scott

Beautiful... You manage to get the idea across exceptionally well. This is five-star work, in my opinion.

Could you please read some of my work, rate, and tell me what you think?