The past comes, fleeting, back in glimpses:
Places, people, faces, times —
Much that was is gone forever,
All that’s left are words and signs
Signs of wonder, words of meaning,
Times connected to the sun,
Life grows dense and tangled ever,
All so different,
Yet one
You were driving,
Trying to remember to stay on
The wrong side of the road,
As we approached the
City of your ancestors,
Through the farmland of your birth,
And for a few hours, at least,
Not weighed down by
A dying
Relationship
Oh, that summer:
You could give me the company I lacked,
But not
The confidence
He treasured her for who she was,
And she liked him for what he could do for her,
So,
The relationship existed in perfect
Inequality
We drove for hours,
You reading, with your bare feet
Up on the dashboard,
And me loving you
In ways women never really understand
About men
The view was spectacular.
We stood on the balcony,
Arms around each other’s waists,
And watched a boat
Race the clouds
To see who
Could come in second
Once, I knew the chill of winter,
Once, I felt the touch the spring:
Once, you were my autumn, summer,
Now life’s lost its
Seasoning
Then, the whitest snow turned hazy,
Then, the warmest breeze turned cold:
Yes, I traded love for honor,
Gained the steel, but lost
The gold
As a small boy,
History was like nature:
To be experienced,
Understood,
And accepted,
And only then
Feared
