This Tender Tale of Mine

Her smile, as warm as sun, did shine

Begins this tender tale of mine

Of girl, ordained by gods’ decree

To be the life and death of me

 

And yes, she shone, lit up my life

This girl who’d one day be my wife

But long before that sacred day

My true love felt the urge to stray

 

And stray she did; she said she must

For larger life her heart did lust

So as I sat at college desk

A student on crusader quest

 

She called me up to settle score

“I cannot do this anymore,”

She wept, for it was hard to part

With love still burning in her heart

 

This blow I parried with a plea:

“My darling, you are killing me…”

But, oh, how easy it can be

To lose your love and liberty!

 

For when our ties she’d cruelly cut

I soon was shackled hand and foot

To creature, crueller than Macbeth

A lady, dire and dour as death

 

A woman of the smallest wit

Who snared me when my girlfriend quit

While she, who’d been my summer sun

Got wed; a deed she thought well done

 

 She lived the dream – far as I knew

I later found this was untrue

For she had kept in bedside draw

The smiling faces we once wore

 

When we were young and flushed with youth

In photographs, that told the truth

That lovers who are born to be

Are never of each other free

 

So as the seasons came and went

And time for us was almost spent

Love’s deeper magic saved the day

It moved the stars and Milky Way

 

Aligned the planets; turned the tide

So we could end up side by side

When twilight fell and cast its cloak

Upon us: frailer, older folk

 

At fifty, Time itself stood still

So other loves we both could kill

As they lay sleeping, safe in bed

We broke their hearts, for we both fled

 

And girl, with summer’s smile so sweet

At kissing gate arranged to meet

And I knew then it would be fine

Her life, once more, entwined with mine!