We dated twice, and that was that.
A missing thing, a nameless lack —
And so, because we’d long been friends,
We kind of just to that went back.
And though I loved you, without doubt,
And you, I’m pretty sure, loved me,
We had the sky without the stars,
And fate without
The destiny
Sometimes I was the one aggrieved,
At times, the one aggrieving –
With her, the fault lays all with me:
Tale told, without deceiving
I chased her, summertime to fall.
Tore down her barriers of doubt;
But once I got beyond her wall,
I couldn’t get back out –
And panicked when I found back there,
That once she loved, she loved for real:
And that was more, much more than I
Was then prepared to feel.
Although I disappointed her,
To work so long to leave so fast,
The same thing would be done to me,
Before much time had passed.
And so we all will live to get,
Our turn at each role in the play:
I’m sure that she’s long over it,
But wish I had not been
That way
What makes love strong can also make it painful.
A college boy, and she, a college girl –
We wandered in the autumn of enjoyment
And let our flags of ecstasy unfurl
It wasn’t what was physical about us:
The question that we answered in our quiz
That, although brief, reminded me forever
That perfect love is perfect, when it is
Do not ask me how it happened
To this day I’m not quite sure –
A girl who I went to church with
And a friendship long secure
Spoke to her Christmas vacation
She was helping church day care;
Said, “Why don’t we catch a movie?”
She said, “Sure, then. When and where?”
So that night we went to see
Some horrid awful slasher flick
I am glad we got distracted
Watching would have made me sick
Yes, somehow we fell to kissing
In the cool, protected dark
Of the nearly empty movie.
Later, we went to a park
Over by the airfield runway.
Watched the planes over our heads:
Stayed out very late indeed, then
Headed each back to our beds.
At the time, I had no inkling
Just when, just how, I’d gone wrong:
With the decades, now, for distance
I know I came on too strong
So our first night was the last night
For another girl and guy:
One more chance at love that faltered
Just a test that went awry
But, I did learn one thing from her,
That has served me well since then:
If you never ask the question
You won’t know
What might
Have been
She was a lovely person
Friends with my friend’s fiancee;
They travelled down from Baltimore
To spend the holiday
I had just got a kitten
From the local shelter’s care;
When they came by to visit
I became, well, quite aware
How pretty and how funny and
How interesting she seemed;
And as she watched the kitten play
Her laughing visage beamed
We spent two weeks together
Mostly her, the cat, and me —
Agreeing we would correspond
And see what we could be
But letters, calls and flowers
Couldn’t bridge us o’er the span
Of distance in a romance that
Had barely yet began
But she was honest, forthright
And it ended gracefully;
She, so soon then married —
Still alone
My cat
And me
He asked me was it serious
I said I didn’t know;
But I needed to talk to her
Before I had to go
She lived just down the way
I met her just outside her place:
The breeze was blowing, as
She brushed the hair back from her face
I said, “Last night was wonderful.”
She said, “Yes, it was nice.”
The wind was flowing frigid
As my heart turned into ice
And I realized I’d been thinking that
This girl might be the one —
When she merely passing time
Inconsequential
Fun
I had a friend who loved a girl
But dated her roommate:
We were then both in college
He lived in another state
I travelled up to his school
Without notice, on a whim:
The Friday that I got there
I could not see much of him
Because of things he had to do.
He told me with a shrug
That I could take this girl out
Who I knew he really dug
So we played tennis, she and I
Then drank at a cafe:
Then drove her white convertible
To pass the time away
And much to my surprise
Some things then happened, unforeseen:
‘Twas very late when I got back
And he was passed out, clean —
He asked me, what had happened
The next morning, with a smile:
“We played tennis — had some drinks —
Then drove around awhile…”
He looked at me, astonished
For he knew me far too well;
He heard what I had not said,
In the things I didn’t tell
And we sat there in silence
As he sadly shook his head
He wasn’t mad at me at all
But at himself instead
For he was with her roommate.
Truth is truth, and fair is fair:
But what he shared with me
He never
Ever
Meant
To share
She was a social worker
Who I met amidst my blight;
A willowy obsession
I would dream of every night
She knew she had attracted me
And so she left the case:
As I, ravaged with illness
Rued her absence
In disgrace
What she did was cavilling
Herself she had indicted;
And though she tiptoed round the truth
Somehow I think I liked it
She sang her song of innocence
As sweetly as the birds;
Then picked my pocket clean
While I was hanging on her words
A carny and a gamin
What you saw was what you’d find:
But I felt pangs of love for her
I’d lost my freaking mind
