POETRY

If

Wishful thinking

If only your first love had been me we wouldn’t be dining apart tonight alone with our separate miseries strangers trapped by our own candlelight.

There’d be no worries on your pretty face if only your first love had been me a lifetime of smiles would leave their trace to frame the essence of your beauty.

Across the restaurant, I watch you eat and wonder what stories we’d have if only your first love had been me and our two lives had touched in the past.

I give you these words on a napkin as I walk past your table to leave to say you would have been worshipped if only your first love had been me.

I so wish my life had been brightened by someone that I never knew this burden of sadness would be lightened if only my first love had been you.

Jim Dutton © 2021