Regrets – No Talent For Certainty

raisa

time cannot
take away her grief,
nor can it
heal in full
the ache of youth wasted on
empty promises

He lost her long ago, he thinks,
And she was lovely, soft and sweet —
But somewhere there, amid the drinks,
She left and said, “I won’t repeat

This stupid hope I have that you
Will love me like you used to do.”
“It’s true,” he thinks, “that came to pass,”
Then pours himself another
Glass

if I could bring the moments back,
the pictures frozen there in time,
we would be laughing in the snow
that now falls only in my mind.

for you were lovelier than all
this cold and wintered heart has known;
and i can see, unfaltering,
the love and grace that lately shone

from out of your once smiling face.
enthusiasm pure and clear
in moments that i treasure now
that you have gone
and i’m still here

This is a prompted post.

He knows the truth,
He’s seen it, briefly,
For she held it
In her loving hands

He knows the truth,
And feels it, deeply,
For what is lost, he finally
Understands

those thoughts we think but never say
like darkness on the edge of day;
till grief comes knocking on our door
and leaves us lonely, sick and poor

in seasons of our reticence,
mid symbols laced with sorrow —
todays we spend in timeless rue,
because we sold
tomorrow

wave never ridden,

a dream that comes back, calling –

why didn’t you come?

heard, the sound of summer lost,

felt, the sting of years let go

When she was almost young, she slept
Next to the fields of pure delight;
When she went almost out, she heard
Of secret pleasures in the night

When she felt almost love, she dreamed
Of freedom found in ecstasy —
Yes, when she almost lived, she lived
Just two doors down
From me

(“Almost” – 5-21-2017)