a note in a cracked champagne bottle

A bottle can only take so much.....Happy New Year.

a note in a cracked champagne bottle

A Poem by Colton Warr 

I yearned for you long before you ever knew,
Before my name meant anything to you,
I carried it quiet, like something I stole,
A bright, aching spark in the dark of my soul.

My heart is champagne meant to burst into light,
To laugh in your hands on a warm summer night,
But somewhere along all the waiting and strain,
A crack found its way through the glass of my pain.

Now every soft feeling escapes with a hiss,
Each word I don’t say tastes a little like this,
Like sweetness gone flat, like a cork never freed,
Like joy that arrived far too early to be.

You speak of your dreams, you speak of your fears,
Of people who held you through years upon years.
I nod like a friend, I smile like I’m fine,
While adoring you lives in the marrow of my spine.

If bottles could speak, if glass could confess,
Mine would be shaking with all I suppress.
A note swims inside it, written in truth,
In ink made of longing and leftover youth.

But I fear if I open what’s breaking in me,
The spill would be more than you’d care to see.
So I let it go quiet, I let it grow old,
This love losing bubbles, this warmth turning cold.

Still, somewhere inside the cracked, fragile shell,
The champagne remembers how joy used to swell.
And I adore you like that, unspoken, unfree,
A celebration you never knew waited for thee.

Part 2 (Champagne Stains) 

I carry my love the way a party carries
its last hour,
quietly, with the lights dimmed,
confetti bruised underfoot,
music still breathing but tired.

You don’t know this.
You smile at me like a passerby smiles at a window display,
not realizing the glass is warm from someone standing too close for too long.

My heart is a cracked champagne bottle,
once sealed for celebration,
meant to be opened with laughter
and a gasp of surprise.
Now there’s a fracture along the neck,
thin, almost polite,
leaking its fizz into the air
before anyone can toast.

I keep the bottle anyway.
I tell myself cracks are proof
of pressure, of joy waiting too hard.
Inside, the bubbles still rise,
still believing they’ll reach your lips.

You talk to me about your days,
about the weather,
about people you loved out loud.
Each word is a fingertip
tapping the glass,
and I pretend it doesn’t ring.

If I could, I’d slip this poem to you,
a folded note drifting in sweetness,
let it wash up at your feet
when you least expect it.
But the bottle is flawed,
and I am afraid of the spill,
afraid that once opened,
there will be nothing left to save.

So I stand here, fizzing quietly,
celebration postponed,
adoring you in the way oceans love shores
they’re not allowed to cross,
endlessly,
patiently,
leaving everything I am
in the sound of breaking bubbles
you never hear.

Part 3 (uncorked) 

I keep my love sealed deep inside of this glass, 

A champagne heart I dare not yet unseal, 

The bubbles climb, insisting they must pass, 

Each rising spark revealing what I feel. 

A crack runs thin along the bottles side, 

A fault line drawn by time I cannot slow, 

The pressure builds; my silence can’t abide, 

The fizzing truth that’s begging me to go. 

I’m running out of time to play it safe, 

The cork is tired of hearing me pretend, 

If I don’t pour it now the glass will break, 

And spill a love I never got to send. 

I have two glasses waiting on the table, 

One meant for me, one meant to meet your hand, 

So drink with me while it’s still a fable-

Before the bottle breaks, please understand.

Reviews

[WanderingWriter]

Beautifully written, loved the imagery here. Fantastic poem, I can't pick a favorite line, they're all brilliant and thoughtful. Keep it up!

[Colton Warr]

Thank you very much! I appreciate the kind words! Thank you for reading!

[plumeria]

This is incredibly well written your use of the champagne metaphor carries beautifully across all three parts, and your emotional clarity and voice show real skill. It feels like a thoughtful, confident piece that many readers will connect with.

[Colton Warr]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate you taking the time to read and share your thoughts. It means a lot!

[Kenneth The Poet]

Epic, just a simply epic write. I like it.

[Colton Warr]

Thank you very much for the kind words! I appreciate you taking the time out to give it a read, it means a lot!