By JM
Date: 7 September 1997

Promises Shattered

I will think of you from this day forward
long after we have parted ways
well beyond when we are no longer us ---
when you are simply 'you' and I am only 'me.'
I will think of you each time I hear Patsy Cline 
or Roy Orbison on the stereo or when I 
open the mailbox and find something 
addressed to you --- touching the envelope 
gently, as if stroking your tanned skin, now long gone.
As often as I look at the pale mark
remaining on my left ring finger,
each and every time I look at our children,
as often as I light one of our cigarettes,
whenever I see a question mark,
every single time I rent a videotape --
especially those with subtitles, our favorites.
Always when I watch golf on television
and when someone says 'the breeze is blowing'
whenever I dip my toes into cool seawater
or see an elderly couple holding hands --
I will wonder if we could have been them,
should have been them.