BRYN FORTEY

JUDAS KISS

i wasn’t always the best of husbands
she wasn’t always the best of wives

but we enjoyed the good
worked through the bad
surviving our ups and downs
as most people tend to do
but most do not lose a son
in circumstances as cruel as ours


though it took four long years
of gradual deterioration
she never recovered from the loss
and at least I was there
offering love and support
when it was needed the most

i can’t help thinking sometimes
it might have been better
had we never met
there would have been no son
to die such a wasteful death
she would not have suffered 
the slow downward spiral of her end

from the first moment 
i set eyes upon Maddalena
i hungered for her lips
my last words were: “I love you”
accompanied by a kiss

our lips must have touched a million times
during our fifty-three year marriage
but did it start with a Judas Kiss
pointing us towards 
an unavoidable tragedy
embedded in our lifelines.

********************copyright, Bryn Fortey

Bryn Fortey has been publishing poetry and short stories since the British underground cultural renaissance of the Sixties. After being the guiding intelligence behind the excellent print magazines 'Target' and 'Outlaw' he published two collections of his work on Alchemy Press, 'Merry-Go-Round' and 'Compromising the Truth'. Both are endlessly inventive explorations of imaginary worlds and possibilities. We defy anyone to predict how a Bryn Fortey story will end when it begins.