Again and Again and Agai...

Long days journey into night

A night that stands still for no one

A world to be lost in

She sits among youth and songs. To stand before a crowd. Smile and bow without worry. Life as a child.

Used teabags among soiled cups. The dishes old yet white. She sits awkwardly at the wooden table, back forced arched to the wood seat. And fondly, recalls the boy.

The one who no longer is. The memory that warms as a fire burns.

The two were sixteen with stars and a blanket. Night lives cold but youth burns. She found herself in his eyes. Pale skin to hands, fingers, clasped to hers, tanned from the sun from another era.

Their playing more joyful than the kittens lost among the daffodils. Love, rich and growing, ever in spring, ever quick to expand, memories sparked green.

And a Swedish woman preaching the truths of love in a coffee bar in Grinnell Iowa. This Wednesday night in February.

Can I crown you with my memories? Will you wear them yet? I promise, they fit you well.

The streets you wander down frighten me. It pains to see you so, to feel you slip away in every aspect, but I will wave to you. I still have it in me to say good bye, chasing your reflections through the dark puddles of unknown. I would fly to stay by your side. All I can call, all I can muster, all that I can spare is farewell.

Fare you well my love

Fare you well my once charmed soul

They say our eyes matched. Blue. You’ll be romanticized and demonized in the same breath. And you know it.