Conditional Affection

  She only loved me while the sun was in the sky. As it sank beneath the horizon her back would turn on me and out the door she went.  Before she left she would promise to bring back lilacs in the morning.  Some nights my heart would ache so I'd go looking for her.  On pale nights I'd find her at the bar, but she'd never recognize me.  So I'd sit in the corner sipping my beer and admiring from afar.

   After finishing my drink and paying I would walk the streets with an odd smile playing on my lips. Were we cursed?  I don't know, I never knew.  We grew accustomed to the situation, it worked.  And each morning she'd come back, knocking on the door, her hair parted differently from the night before with the biggest bouquet of Lilacs in her hand. I also could never figure out where all the lilacs came from, but I loved them. I would hug her while laughing: imagining that as the sun popped the tiniest bit into the morning's sky she might have hopped over some neighbor's fence to swipe the flowers from the garden.  But I never really knew if she'd return, so I cherished her conditional affection.


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  Now for a bit of music.  I thought the music video for Death Cab for Cutie's song "Underneath the Sycamore" has a very cool style of animation that tells a surreal noír-like tale.  Hope you enjoy.

Death Cab for Cutie
Underneath the Sycamore