Green eyes
And silent lies.
Moments of the past
Which have gone too fast.

Promises made,
And edges frayed.
Things have gotten old,
And the long nights have gotten cold.

Laughter and smiles
Locked into files
Labelled under ‘times gone by’
Where they will slowly die.

That time we cried,
Side by side,
When we were still friends,
And I thought it could never end.

We sat in town
Your face with a frown.
Under the sun,
We sat making up names for everyone.

That night in late July,
Where I swore I would never lie,
As you stared at the dark,
And I carved in a trees bark:

‘Me and her forever
We will endeavour
Through thick and thin
Through innocence and sin.’…

We would text each other
And laugh at one another,
While you sat to my right
And never left my sight.

We didn’t pay attention
We got two weeks detention,
Where I wrote
And you drew a boat.

But then you grew,
And thought it overdue,
For a change of scene
And see the unseen.

The last night I saw you,
I never had a clue,
What you did just hours before
You walked through that door.

You went to that tree.
Many years later I went to see
You added four more lines…
I should have seen the signs:

‘It’s her from above.
It’s him I love,
For now ‘til I’m dead
I shall dream of him in my bed’…

I stood unbelieving,
And saw it was me who had been deceiving.
I fell to my knees,
And begged God please…

Let me undo what I had done.
Take me back to where we began:
So I could start again,
So I could explain.

Into the tree I engraved:
‘Let me be saved.
It’s him from up there
And this is my dare

Open up your heart
And do your part
Tell me where you are
I pray it be not far’…

The streets of home,
Seem so small when you are alone;
Reminiscing,
Remembering what you are missing.

Years became longer,
And my need grew stronger.
I packed all I had,
They thought I was mad;

I left everything,
And found you in spring.
Sitting by a lake,
Barely awake,

Eyes red from tears,
And clutching your ears.
I sat next to you and asked,
“If a monster himself unmasked,

And opened his mind,
Would you be kind?
Or stare away,
Day after day?”

You pulled up your head
And I heard the first thing you said,
“Years and years I had to wait
But I don’t care that it’s late”

When you turned, I found
I was bound
To that night in late July,
Where I swore I would never lie.

Tales were regaled,
And I excelled where I had failed
I found my words,
Amongst the tree’s birds,

And you found your home,
Was back were you used to roam,
Where you found love,
In what was written above.

And many years later;
Our love grew greater,
Our friendship ended,
But our marriage was splendid

________________________________________


The tree now reads:
‘To those who have needs:
Love can last,
Even when time has past.

If one loves two,
Then love them true.
Do what you feel,
And make it seem unreal.

You can find love in the strangest places,
Even in familiar faces,
But if you find it, don’t let it go
Or it’ll be your woe,

In the times gone by.
Let this be your night in late July.