It was a Fall day, brisk and cool
Down at the waterside
We slowly walked along the edge
Attempting to decide
How we would spend our day,
Given the limits of our town:
Two twenty-somethings, bravely bored
Just wandering around.
I can still smell the air, so clear
And see the sky, so blue:
As we ignored perfection
Planning something else to do
I took a date down to these waters
Many years ago;
To talk and watch the day go down
From light to indigo
And she was right next to me, I
Inhaled her with the air –
A scent I still remember
As though I was sitting there
And friends, among the many things
I know that I have lost;
The roads I will not find again,
The gone whose paths I’ve crossed
She sits inside me, always,
Ever beautiful, and one:
Amid palms & pavilion
At the setting of
The sun
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Photo credit : © Erichinson | Dreamstime.com – Palms & Pavillion, Gulf Coast Photo
The storm and I are cousins, we
Both hang out here a lot;
It tells me all the time that I
Am wasting what I’ve got
And then it throws its rain at me,
And soaks me through the skin —
The storm and I, we have our ways:
We’re very much
Akin
Where I come from, there are bright colors
Out upon the beach;
The sand is white, the sea is green,
And there’s enough for each
And any who might come that way;
Yes there’s enough to see —
In fact, back down where I come from,
It’s all too much
For me
I chose to move away to chase a life
And left these scenes of paradise behind.
It just seemed right to do, I didn’t mind;
But I can’t say the same for my ex-wife,
Who like me, grew up with these waters near,
And who left friends and family and foam,
To watch me struggle with a new career
And keep a newborn in a brand new home
It cannot have been easy, and ere long
We fell apart; as she’d grown feelings strong
For someone else, and so she left one day.
But I stayed on, continuing my way.
I lived here once, near waters green and pure;
I lived a life both salient and azure,
And left it all, although I was not sure —
But found a life I very much
Prefer
In search of family memories
I celebrate the day;
Now, growing up seems more like all
The games we used to play
Our breathless brand of hopefulness,
A type of slow ballet —
But like the sun that lit our backs
It all just fades
Away
