PERSIAN PRINCESS II

The news

Of your death

Shredded me

Like random shrapnel

From a roadside bomb.

Jagged thorns

Tore ragged holes

In my old heart

And left it ridden

With shabby scars.

But I am so lucky

Because I knew you.

I saw you –

Watched you from a distance

At first,

And then

Looked into your eyes.

I touched you –

Sensed your warmth,

And knew I was

So close to heaven.

I talked with you –

Heard the symphonies

That sprang from your voice –

The songs in your Persian phrasing.

I walked with you –

Kept you by my side

So others knew

We were together

And you

Had chosen me.

I laughed with you –

And you were so funny

As you teased me

And told me things

I never would have known.

I worked with you –

Solved problems –

And found solutions,

As we discovered

Each other.

I loved you –

Brief moments –

Stolen and stored away,

Before we wept,

Separated and bereft.

I wondered about you –

Long years of other

As we grew old

And walked our paths.

I sought you –

Too late it seems –

And long after

Your pain was gone.

I am left

With holes

In my heart

And scars

Set forever.

Sometimes I dream of you

And some of the smallest

Holes in my heart

Are filled for a moment.

Sometimes I talk to you

And I hear you answer

In your sing-song voice

That pleases my ears.

Sometimes I pray for you

And God tells me

Not to worry –

For He has rescued you.

Sometimes I lust for you –

The hardest cut of all.

Your beauty rises up

And falls against me, softly.

Sometimes I simply love you

And my heart’s scars

Are salved so sweetly

With the joy of privilege.

You were special.

You were unique.

You were too much

For a man like me.

And yet,

After decades,

I still see your face

As it was then –

Nothing compares

And nothing ever will.