Already I Am Mourning...

'Oh!' I sighed/moaned, 'When am I going to get time to read all of these beautiful books

full of ever-so-fantastic writing?!'

'You won't' came my daughter Victoria's instant reply.

'That's the sad truth about owning a library! 

You will never read all of the books!'

...But they are still nice to have nearby, like comfortable, wise, old friends.

Already I am mourning all the ways we didn’t meet

I didn’t linger in the leaves you scattered at my feet

I never did discover what you made me think or say

Or needed to recover as your whisper slipped away

The solace that we found in one another’s company

The way you wound yourself around places inside of me

The way you would have kissed me if I’d given you a chance

The way I would have missed you after our parting dance

After the afternoon we didn’t spend, just you and I

With not a thing between us but perhaps a parchment sigh

The friends we could have been, darling, does it not break your heart

The way that we will never meet thus we will never part

A little like a flower bloomed unseen and gone to seed

Already I am mourning all the books I didn’t read

© Janet Martin