image
too late to cry

image credit: tolbert

scattered memories were misplaced until today,
when i remembered your going away.
somehow i knew you would not look back.

how was i to know that life honors no promises
and holds no secrets until tomorrow’s sunrise?
you taught me that without ever knowing it.

a weather-beaten fence now surrounds the burrowed field
where once you walked amidst the swaying daisies,
golden in the afternoon.

dried roses—brown from neglect and the cold of winter—
easily crumble at the touch of my lips
as i place them against the cracking cold marble slab.

i never knew you except in my dreams,
and memories of your soft touch were born in wishes
that i could have seen your eyes just once.

did you cry when you walked away to another place,
where the yesterdays of your life
were sure never to meet the tomorrows of mine?

i found you here all alone
when the snow melted and birds reappeared
…and when the farmer showed me the way.

© 2012, tolbert. All rights reserved.

avatar tolbert (24 Posts)

Born in Virginia and raised in North Carolina, I have Southern roots that were extracted when I lived close enough to Berkeley in the late sixties and early seventies to taste the influences of the pursuit of freedom. As a student at San Jose State University I watched William Kuntsler expound on the values of free speech and he offered more education in an hour, on the lawn by the baseball diamond than most professors gave in a full semester. Married for thirty years, I have two grown daughters and three grandkids,..and two Boston Terriers.


2 Comments

  1. avatar
    Cher Duncombe
    March 16, 2012 at 9:31 pm ·

    There are places in the heart, Tolbert, that you reach through your tender but powerfully sad words. This is so sadly beautiful and somehow tears weld even in a stranger’s eyes.
    Cher Duncombe recently posted..Tea Party Bravado Results in Mitt RomneyMy Profile

  2. avatar
    tolbert (Author)
    March 17, 2012 at 3:35 am ·

    Thanks Cher, you get what I am trying to say and that is the greatest compliment of all! :-)

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