Flashbacks By Jonathan Butcher

This mirror of time, which casts

unfair reflections. sees your face now 

aged but without the shadows

of toil, refusing to glance forward.

A slight flash of memory, 

like misplaced lightning suddenly 

reminds me of why this would be

the case.

Then in the same breath, this pub

reveals yet further flashbacks;

a conversation picked up two

decades later, your stance

at the bar still with false pretension,

but now without the same flair 

we remember; any grace left behind years ago. 

The drinks thankfully mask 

this irritating nostalgia, 

like trinkets once linked to pleasure 

discarded in city alleyways, now 

just an empty shell of what they once 

offered. I slowly sink back into the here

and now, reminding myself of the benefit

of hindsight. 

 

Jonathan Butcher has had poems appear in various print and online publications including, The Morning Star, Mad Swirl, Drunk Monkeys, The Abyss, Cajun Mutt Press and others. His fourth chapbook, 'Turpentine' was published by Alien Buddha Press.

He is also the editor of online poetry journal Fixator Press.