How Well She Sat There

how well she sat there,
like a doll.
eating her doll lunch  with a friend
while I, alone, betrayed – bereft –
feasted on her youth,
her innocence,
her loveliness.

each day the summer lawns above the torrens drew me back
to worship her  -  who could have been my child.
oh lovely asian eyes!
how sweetly your folded shades
couched the deep wonder of you
and fed manna to this crippled soul.

You will never know.

the jackals gathering ,
sent their emissaries to this haven
and peace died for me –
and life became an ever-aching loneliness
that  stretches now forever.

Once she came to me without a word
As if sensing my need,
and  offered me her  hand -  
and I – fighting the gathering dark,
denied her simple gift…
and live to regret it all my days.

With joy, I watched her grow
worldly and beautiful –
proudly independent,
 and one final day she asked:
will you ever marry again?
and I – fool – told her I would never trust another.

To she!   Who could have made me whole!

I saw her in the street today…
she waited for a bus a hundred  yards away.

a chasm I could not cross

I loved her with my eyes –
tall and lithe, surpassing all I thought  she would become.
and as the bus passed by,  a window showed
the lovely asian eyes that fed me life –
tragic, stricken in farewell.