Sinking

          Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
               -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
 
 
Avoiding eye contact, I charted my path to the door
     but the waves always part for him and he glided easily
          through the crowd to my side, a contented sigh falling
               from his mouth to the floor like a ship dropping anchor.
 
               Mundane comments swelled, monotonous stories.
          My feet foundered on the rolling deck of
     disorienting drivel, the bile rising to the back of my
throat. Carefully aimed distress flares fell sputtering, unnoticed.
 
He paused to try the champagne, but I was already lost in fog
     of fulminations, helpless spectator as the evening
          ran aground on the rocks of ridiculous rhetoric.
               Politely excusing myself, I lowered a lifeboat into the
                    roiling waters
 
                         and rowed awkwardly
 
                                   back into the party. . .
 

Rachael Helsel