Days of Wine and Roses

Cherry

By luigi_pagano

Sat, 21 Nov 2020
  • 1050 reads
6 comments
 
The days of wine and roses, replaced
by the nights of cocoa and Ovaltine,
may be remote but are not forgotten.
You wore pink lipstick, I brilliantine,
in that fashionable time of yesteryear
when our raison d'etre was romance
and partying in congenial gatherings
with youthful energy and exuberance.
But we were also serious intellectuals
discussing the literary works of Racine
whereas today the only topic debated
is about the date we'll get a vaccine.
O tempora. O mores, we could say
and leave it at that, but how to explain
the nostalgic remembrance of the past
plus the wish we could live it again?
The regret we feel about its passing
may be the reason we keep love-tokens
which takes us back to happier times
before the magic spell was broken.
There is an object that I shall retain
to keep my treasured memory intact;
it is an item, new and unused, I found
when you left: your powder compact.
You would have used, I am certain,
as you were wont to do prior to a dance
to add more colour to your rosy cheeks,
if Fate had granted you another chance.
 
 
 
© Luigi Pagano 2020
Certificate U
Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Other Fiction
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

What a wonderful keepsake of nostalgia. It's good to have something that stirs the memories.

Great idea for the I P Luigi.

Jenny. xx

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thanks for looking in and commenting, Jenny.
The older we get, the more nostalgic we seem to become.

Luigi xx

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

A good story and must have been a lot of work. But you leave us guessing and up to the end. It may be good style to keep to build up suspense. Well then you just keep us hanging there or did I miss something? The lipstick part too I find puzzling. .. .  the picture as well. This story is sad hey?

What does " O tempora. O mores" mean Liuigi? Is it Italian, or Latin?

Tom Brown

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Hi Tom. I don't believe you have missed anything. There is no intention of keeping anyone in suspense or guessing. It is simply about a man recalling the past and his romance with a girl (now deceased) who wore pink lipstick whilst his hair was smothered with brilliantine, as it was the fashion of those days. The only keepsake to remind him of her is a decorated art-deco powder compact, shown in the illustration above the text.

O tempora, o mores! is a Latin phrase that translates literally as "Oh the times! Oh the customs!", first recorded to have been spoken by Cicero. A more natural, yet still quite literal, translation is "Oh what times! Oh what customs!"; a common idiomatic rendering in English is "Shame on this age and on its lost principles!"

 

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is lovely Luigi

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Glad you like it, Claudine. Nice to hear it.

Luigi x