All the anticipation, expectation & prognostication having systematically considered <br />Every one of the almost infinite permutations and possibilities, <br />Assigning each its own probability, <br />The mediation meeting should surely have held not a single surprise. <br /> <br />Sure enough: it didn’t… <br />I’d plotted the point with such microscopic measure. <br /> <br />Then why, when it came, <br />As familiar as a family face, <br />Did I feel my fingers fumble <br />For the business-like bottle of branded water <br />Only to feel it flinch, frozen from my grasp: <br />Its condensation recoiling <br />From an unwelcome arranged marriage <br />To the sweat standing proud on my palms – <br />Palms that felt as dry as the strangled cry stuck in my craw? <br /> <br />Maybe it wasn’t me. <br />Maybe the water-with-a-will <br />Was simply sneering at the no-name plastic cup: <br />Its all-too-unattractive, decanted destination. <br /> <br />“Love you………but can’t. <br />Love you………..but won’t. <br />Love you………..but……” <br /> <br />But to me, everything but love can have buts; <br />But then….. is this love?<br /><br />Tony Jolley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bottles-and-buts/
