Chocolates in a Heart-shaped Box

1.

It snowed today, that light, fluffy

stuff to remind me of winters past,

long past, holding your hand and making

snow angels, bundled warm against the cold.

 

                        2.

I imagine you back

into my life, old memories,

you who first taught me love,

the joy of that discovery

and the pain of losing you.

 

                        3.

We were young and carved our initials

into a tree, that old promise of “forever together,”

but we went our separate ways by summer’s end;

yet, you and me, we are still together,

forever in the memories we made,

in the stories we tell.

 

                        4.

New Year’s Day at the beach, bundled up

to keep warm, to keep out the Atlantic’s cold

spray, the gulls above us squawking, suspended

in flight as we stare across the ocean to distant shores

unseen, shores too far to reach, the two of us,

sitting here, dreaming, wondering, suspended too.

 

                        5.

I would give you flowers, roses

or daisies, a single pink carnation

when the cash was low in our teen years,

but money well spent, just to say I loved you;

if I could, I would send them again, today,

all of you who shared my life, briefly, enriching it,

and shared your love, equally returned, even now,

love in a long stem rose or a pink carnation,

chocolates in a heart-shaped box.