Projections

Projections of us dancing
Flicker in my mind,
The circumstance, though,
Remains truthfully unkind.

We fell into arms to
The applause of our peers,
Yet our difference lies
In our gap of two years.

Our meeting has come
Too late in our lives,
And I listen with envy
To how your world thrives.

You whisper of your
Babies, man and boy,
And how they both bring
You an endless joy.

And as we sway gently to
A Christmas coming,
Your child’s virtue
Begins softly humming.

I held you first with
Selfish hopes of love,
But now context’s role
Shows me this is enough.

*

When the music stops
And the night ends,
You speak with passion
Of love and its trends.

An urge rises through me
Like a new day’s sun,
But my head rules my heart
And I fend off this one.

When you dismiss the flirts
Who chase all chances,
I learn, with silence,
To cherish our dances.

For while a kiss from you
Is all I really want,
Destroying your certitude
Would be an endless haunt.

So I hold off the urge
With repressed ache,
But a lesson is learned
From a subdued mistake:

In the end regret
Will always be rife,
So try to take comfort
When its reason is right.