Raw Earth Ink
spit, mixed with dirt – muddy words flow
Unappreciated (Portraits pt. 3)
Day after day he creeps through life. It wasn’t always so. There was a time when they held hands and spent hours talking and had loved without abandon. But the fire has long since died out in her eyes and a cold condescending glare has replaced it. Nothing he does is good enough. The house isn’t big enough, he doesn’t help with the kids, the car is too old. An undercurrent of repulsion swirls about her feet wherever she moves. He throws himself into work, buries himself. Tries to forget the rejection at home. Extra days, longer hours. It’s never enough, however. He comes home to a messy house and chaos. She hands him the baby as he crosses the threshold and pours herself the first gin and tonic. Later, as he attempts to gain peace in a book or the tube or even his writing, she’s right there over him, finger in his face. Scolds him like one of the children. His head sinks lower. He closes his eyes. In a desperate gamble to gain back all he’s lost, he endeavors to woo her again. Dinner dates, pretty rings, compliments galore, attempts intimacy. Each gift is received with scorn and a biting tongue. Each night she pushes him further away, pulling the blanket tight across her shoulders as she rolls away. He begins to lose confidence at work. He looks around himself and wonders how his life came to be this way and where did he go wrong? Then unexpectedly one day he meets Her. Not in person, no. Instead She is someone who he encounters online. She reads his works. Loves them. Neither of them is looking for anything other than a connection. But one comment leads to another and another. Emails. Texts. Phone calls. She soon fills all the places in his heart that his wife has forgotten existed. They make plans to rendezvous in person and, look, there he waits at the airport, holding a sign, a hotel key, and a bouquet of fragrant lilies…
tara caribou | ©️2018
14 Comments on “Unappreciated (Portraits pt. 3)”
Raw Earth Ink 
In some ways, it seems painfully reminiscent of growing old, and not just that, growing old together with someone. It shows how things change, when we are left unaware of those changes, and when we finally realize them, then…. There are always temptations lurking, taking us away from the straight and narrow, having only our moral fiber to keep us strong, trying to decide between what seems wrong, and what feels right.
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Well put. Thanks!
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It’s always possible she too has met someone online hence the cold shoulder. Great scenario Caribou.
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Perhaps. Hopefully they’ll all work it out in the end. Hopefully Love will win.
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Oh did you capture this…many years ago, I was the one who was suddenly not good enough. It felt just like this…
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Thank you…. and I am so sorry to hear this was a reality for you. ))hugs((
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It felt awful at the time but I have been with someone who – years after we got married – still looks at me (every day) as though he won the lottery. That bad first experience definitely helps me appreciate what I have now… Thanks for the hugs…😊
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That warms my heart to hear that. I love it.
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It’s sad…
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Indeed…
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A sad existence with a happy ending. If I may say it was nice to be written from a man’s point of view.
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I’ve only written from his point of view a couple times.
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Very haunting read! You convey the growing dissatisfaction really vividly, plus a hopeful ending.
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Thank you! I do like this one. It’s the only one with a smidgen of hope pre-built in, even if far-fetched.
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