Then and Now

This is one of my earliest - and favorite - poems (if you don't mind calling them poems). Don't believe every word it says, but I will admit that I did draw from my own experience. Sort of. Oh, and I borrowed that "gypsy moth" from Don McLean (one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters).

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"Then and Now"

Perhaps I would climb this tree,
look over the horizon,
imagine that I am flying free;
have you written to me lately?
Just some late delivery,
adding to my anxiousness greatly.
Do you remember the night of the fireflies?
Summer breeze, quiet stream, sweet lovers' lies;
but I do love you
I do love you
love you---
you
nothing more than a mid-summer night's dream
lay afloat and away on that quiet flowing stream

You wrote careless words to me,
of your fall from the tree,
of bee stings and still-swollen knee;
but I was careful to hold my tears,
write about secret fears,
hopeless hopes, and long-gone years.
Do you anticipate when we will again meet?
Downtown diner, buzzing lamp, cold shivering feet;
but you did love me
you did love me
love me---
me
just a gone-stale bread served with overdone ham
gypsy moth in a last dance around that buzzing lamp
All were futile

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For one thing, don't believe that I am as bleak as these verses. I'm all sunshine, actually. But of course, everyone has his/her dark hours. And to be sure, the words in this poem were written during one of those. ... No, wait, I wrote it when I was a rookie engineer bored silly from sitting in the cubicle all day.

Well, alternatively, you can imagine that perhaps I'm one of those perfectly happy people who finds being tragic o so romantic.