Birthdays Party

Birthday A day of sadness and wasted years a poet who has to pay to be published how pathetic is that? We, my companion and I found a restaurant and for lunch she ate something African. I had a schnitzel that looked as the white meat of a rat that had the liver of one who had taken the pledge lost my appetite. Instead, I had a double portion of fresh cut salad followed by a tomato salad with a bit of mozzarella. I lifted my glass of water saw the eatery through tears not shed, the few friends I had in Algarve have all gone they could not stop in time. The conversations, wit and bottles of red wine kept flowing, it had to stop so I took the bus home. Now it is only my beloved and I left and every year I love her more. At night with a heart full of dread I snuggle up to her, she strokes my somnolent head until I fall asleep again and sadness drifts away.