When she and I sat in the park,
More silent than talking,
Famished past dinner time,
Sacrifices to forbidden love
Companion to the kisses
In the breezy dark,
We loved and had love.
When others finished walking
Past, we kissed again
And made a game of it,
Or love did—we were never sure
Where love ended and we began.
Tonight I came back, feeling the years
Melt. The small park we knew the same.
Then I saw him, a familiar stranger,
A silent part of the scene
I had forgotten. He never made a sound.
He never looked around, the stooped old man,
Who came with a plastic jug of water
And watered the plants. Who was he?
Until then memory had not harmed me.
Now, seeing him, I fled, and burst into tears,
Running from her. Our love. The years.
