Gyppo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:27 pmNAPO 17 - 2019
50 Years and Counting
Over fifty years ago we said goodbye.
In your street clothes instead of your apron,
stood by the head baker's car
waiting for your lift home,
you looked far more grown up,
not the girl who teased me at work,
and made the world a better place
just by your presence.
We exchanged a few platitudes
and said we'd meet again, some day,
if the gods willed it.
Too young to realise that some day,
sometimes, means never,
and the gods, presumably,
had other fish to fry.
Yet you've always been there,
easy to recall,
gentle on my mind.
Red-brown hair glinting in the sun,
that little smile on your lips
and warmth in your grey eyes.
I've loved and lost since then,
more than once,
become a man, a lover,
a father, and now a grandfather.
I have no real idea how you've lived,
although I heard stories.
But nothing for a long time now.
For all I know you may be dead.
You'll certainly be grey haired by now.
But your image persists
and my mind adds children,
even grandchildren,
to that young girl who stole my heart
and still, no matter what,
holds a place I don't wish to deny.
Gyppo
Gyppo, you struck a cord with this poem. I have had a similar, but opposite, constant "wonder" about a boy I once knew. I will dig out the poem I wrote about the experience and add it tomorrow. Young love and "what might have been" are universal. Von
