Memories

Sometimes only a poem will do

Today I learned that you had died

and was surprised to feel so sad inside.

I never even touched your hand,

and yet my eyes seem to fill with sand.

You were off limits then

and wrong for me in so many ways;

and still I see your curious gaze

when your eyes met mine,

and we lost track of time.

How can I mourn a love I never had?

Is it regret that makes me sad?

You had a wife.

You had your own life,

and I moved on with mine.

Now what could have been

is lost in time.

I could have loved you, and perhaps I did.

I will never know what feelings you hid

four decades ago

when we barely said more than

‘hello.’

I tried to call you years later but hung up the phone.

If I’d had more courage, I could have shown

what I felt, but no! Perhaps I was afraid to see

that in all that time you had never thought of me.

Time is a curious beast.

It surprises us when we expect it least.

It sneaks up on us like a cruel Greek fate,

and then we know it is too late.