The Waiting Room

Dominique Rispoli

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781666707120, 9781666707137
• eBook ISBN: 9781666707144
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Religious Poetry
• Index: Literature

This is a book about longing. About waiting, the painful hours ticking by. About depression and anxiety so great they could crush you. It's set in a season of waiting, and the author's journey through that season. The ups, the downs, and everything she experiences along the way. The hope is that you'll be able to see yourself in these pages and find validation and belonging between the carefully thought-out words.

Part 1

The Longing

Winter Reverie

I will always have

a small sort of hope

tucked away

in the dustiest corner of my heart

that one day,

on some wintry afternoon,

you will show up

with love in your eyes

and me the only one on your mind.

Two Years, Four Days

Abruptly, you reached out, and just as quickly, you turned away. Silent exits are your specialty, and missing you is mine. Two years older and I am still trying to make sense of it all. The way we’d dance around each other and the doors that would slam shut on our unspoken feelings. How I tried to reach out, but you were pulled away by God knows what, and I was left to pick up the pieces. Two years clean, but my heart still aches when I catch a glimpse of your face. And I still count the time by how long it’s been since I last saw you. You messaged me four nights ago and my hopes shot up so high they’ve not come down since. Though, once again we found ourselves dancing around each other and putting up walls draped with polite conversation. I wanted so badly to tear those walls down, but you drifted away before I got the chance. And gentle but firm arms kept me from running after you, leaving me with a mind filled to the brim with things left unsaid and hands grasping for answers to shed light on your sudden and violent change of heart. Did it hurt you to talk to me? Do you believe me to be so disenchanted with you that you figured you could walk away with no disclosure and without a second glance? But, what you can’t see is the dull ache that has made its home in my chest ever since I met you, and how it has bloomed and blossomed each time I’ve had to let go of you. You can’t see the way your name is etched into the back of my mind , and how your face frequents my dreams. If only we could get on the same page. But, we are both reaching and always missing. Pulled away by our own misconceptions and each too haunted by the memory of each other. What could have been sings us its relentless tune, but the hushed song of hope is what I strain to listen to.

Autumn Blues

As summer’s warm light began to fade, I felt you beginning to reach out. Warmth and light conversation filled the air, I floated on a cloud filled with hope. Then summer began to flicker, and it finally went out. And you disappeared. I wonder how many times you are to vanish before you are here to stay. I wonder how many times I am supposed to let you slip through my fingers before your fingers are permanently in mine.

Concrete Flowers

I’m trying to resurrect us with my old feelings.

Maybe if I thi...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Prologue
• Part 1: The Longing
• Part 2: The Fantasy
• Part 3: The Rebirth
• Epilogue