Poem: Love Slips Away

Love Slips Away

He stands by the door

His soft eyes holding mine

Above the mingling crowd

The noise fades...his intensity

A warm scarf around my shoulders.

When his arm brushes mine

The warm of a thousand suns

Linger, warmth upon warmth

Seeping through

to grasp the heart..

eager yet floundering.

His laughter launches

A soft flurry of bubbles

Like newly opened champagne

Light and airy, joy and sadness

Mingling in the tormented cup.

Lying side by side

The soft green lawn our bed

The sky our escape

Where the world becomes tiny pixels

In a picture with only you and I.

But is there?

In your presence I feel

The glow of the fireflies

The flush of love so soft

Tiptoeing along

The edge of darkness.

Why then this oxymoron

Love me, love me not?

The pull of wanting and then

Drawing back?

This chemistry, is it just me?

In the old beat-up Toyota,

His knuckles white from gripping

The wheel as we sat under the Frangipani.

The street light a halo of shattered glass

As he stammers out the truth.

In another world, another place, he says

It would be so plain, clear

As his heart desires but …he signs

Duties call, honor first

"I have to go," he bursts.

In my dreams, he stands

Outside the door

His eyes searching for mine

His arm stretches to embrace

But the vast emptiness stands

The gulf of distance we can never hope to cross.

When you lose someone you truly love, the hurt can never go away. The aching will be there today, tomorrow and the days after all the tomorrows. Though time can soften the lenses through which the experience is viewed, the bittersweet is still there, hiding somewhere in the corners of the heart and it doesn’t take much for that memory to resurface. Sometimes it’s an event, sometimes it’s a scene from a movie or certain phrase, a poem or a song. Sometimes, it’s the time of the year or a certain ambience. For me, it came all afresh (again) with the song “Someone like You” by Adele. How could I escape when I hear this over the radio and they play it at least ten times a day?

The first stanza goes:

I heard that you're settled down
That you found a girl and you're married now.
I heard that your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things I didn't give to you.

Though the scenario is slightly different in the song, it holds all the sentiment of love lost. We met while doing some volunteer work with some poor kids in a newly established church. His sincere and warm ways grew on me and the attraction soon became evident. While he wore his feelings on his sleeves, there’s a reticence I cannot quite understand. While he struggled with his inner feelings, I have no clue until he broke the news that fateful night. He already had a girlfriend before he met me and while the chemistry was strong, he felt the need to meet his family's and the girl’s expectations. He was in medical school at that time and he was expected to marry the girl he met in medical school when he graduated. He told me he wished he had met me first.

The refrain goes:

Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead."

Sometimes, love is not meant to be, despite the strongest of feelings and you have to move on. I did but how can you ever forget the love that you want it to be?

Copyright 2011. All RIghts Reserved.

Other Poetry Hubs by anglnwu:

Dorm Goodbye

Take Five from Nature

I Want to Run Away