Once

Once, you were beautiful to me
when the leaves were full on the trees
when I dried my clothes by summer breeze,
and with the air of breaking dawn moist upon my lips
I must have forgotten beauty fades with age.

~

Once, I was beautiful to you
and we, as naked as trees in winter lay
in passionate embraces, trying to cross the limits
of time to squeeze in all that we could
and still finding something left behind.

~

Once, we were beautiful,
in those early hazy morning hours
and the dreams we held so tightly
were as real as the warmth we gave
against the cold that crept in
through the cracks in the floor.

~

Once, I could look into your eyes
and imagine the world was beautiful,
a mere touch sent me into happiness
and there was never any truth in saying
that I could let go
of the warm humid hours of semi-darkness
or the long nights of numbing cold
when there was no need for flannel PJs.

~

Once, you and I were beautiful
and the sky was our canvas
we, recklessly
painted our dreams in cobalt blue,
sprinkled them with random dashes of velveted crimson,
sprayed them with tiny specks of moon silver,
and outlined them with streams of 24K gold...
creating a work of art that was so beautiful

we could not touch it...

not even
once.

~