THE VISIT

We met in the later years of life,

Not in spring, when life is young & nature in bloom,

But when leaves were turning from golden to brown.

And nature wore her finest gown.

We gave lots of thoughts to what might have been,

Would I have been your only wife,

Or would you just have passed me by,

Without  a glance; ………….without me ever being seen?

In that other time, long past,

In younger days, when busy with your daily tasks,

With anticipation of what was to come,

And later years had not revealed the furrows of lifes twisting path.

Do you recall a shadow passing across your minds eye?

And, in awareness, as you turned, a soft touch upon your cheek,

Seemed that a butterfly, with gossamer wings

had  brushed your soul, while floating by.

Perchance, you will remember needing solitude & peace,

As life presented you with woes, not the solace that you seeked

                 And the  heavens were alive with mystery, and light,

But not the answers you so needed, appeared  in mind or sight

You thought a hand had touched your hair,

Just a whisper on the breeze,

But when you looked,….…………there was no one there.

Just the laughter of the leaves.

Think back, when walking on that distant shore,

And life was good in all it gave,

You lost your footing in the sand,

And

As you sank beneath the waves

Was lifted safe from Neptune’s door 

And,

Unnoticed,……….were  the footsteps left beside you on the floor.

My love enabled me to find you in your finest years,

You were not familiar & yet…I felt the bond, the closeness of the heart,

And moved to tears

               I wondered if you would remember in your later years,

And recall my visits through the mists of time,

This  gentle shadow walking by your side.

The future beckons, but is soon the past,

Can there be a present,

When time moves so fast?

Will we know our destiny, before gone too  far,

The meaning of life, from the Garden of Eden to the end of the world,

From the birth of a flower, to the death of a star,

The  beginning of time, to the end of time.

Ah;…………you know me now,

And, when winter comes, you won’t dismiss the brush upon your lips as the first fresh fall of snow,

It will be & has always been, the love of your life,

This girl who may have been your wife,

Watching & caring, from the wings,

Enjoying this love that makes our hearts sing,

Virginia Saunders October 2009

A long poem about  love , surviving through time. I got the idea from a film  about  an older  man  travelling through time  to visit his  love in her younger years, although this is told from  a  woman’s perspective.  She mentions  occasions when she has  been looking after him, unbeknown to him , keeping him safe, all through his past.