rhyming couplets – Hearts Still Care

I wonder how have you moved on so fast,
Like no love ever links you to the past?
I wonder about those long talks we had:
Some that were happy and some that were sad.
All those tender moments we shared in time:
Some that became yours, those that remain mine:
Chocolates and roses, gifts of feeling,
And quarrels that led to tears and healing.
Yes, I did want much more than what you gave,
In a lifetime of loss, I wanted to save
You and I, from the manacles of fate
Standing right around our home’s very gate.
Some say the depression I now face
Is because I choose to give suffering space;
But my love remains for eternity –
Even if you wish to have no more of me.
Maybe the world beyond now holds more appeal:
Being woke and savage bestows a zeal
That old fashioned emotion fails to match –
And all that you choose to do is detach.

So be it. Forget me now. Forget it all.
Leave what you believe is a thrall.
Run through society and her glamour.
In time, you will learn to berate and damn her.
I’ve been through an understanding of loss,
I’ve suffered wrong upon life’s turn and toss.
I tried. Oh, how I tried to make you see!
I wished to save you from what was wrought on me.
But I failed. Maybe trying was wrong to do –
Much like me going on loving you.
Forget me, as you think it’s all your choice.
Pour the wine, rebel, revel and rejoice.
But heed the ticking clock of Father Time;
Lest years from now, as you sit down to dine,
And see a movie that we held hands through,
You realise just what I was for you.

I remember the gold hair in your beard,
As the loss descends, much as I feared.
The eyes grandmother warned me to avoid
Have bored, into my heart, an endless void.

I remember how hair curled on your neck,
How, when you fought, a tiny spittle-speck,
Frothed, and formed strings, between your soft lips –
The void shifts. Tears threaten. My breath dips.

I haven’t eaten a mango this season –
Will strawberries hold you back for treason?
I would look for you when you’d gone too far,
How I would instruct you to drive the car,
I pick up the phone to wish you good night –
But you’ve kept your silence and killed this right.

I remember your leg‘s weight when we slept,
I remember the promises we kept.
I remember your warm hand holding mine,
Through each movie, every single time.

I remember you wiping my tears dry
And I wonder how you have let me cry…

The kids miss you. (Remember my daughter?)
They have passed for you, like dirty water.

I’m mad at you. I’m pining. I am lost.
If I’ve hurt you, is this truly the cost?
Because I loved the way you felt and thought,
I‘ll always remember, but you forgot.

Though, through this caravan of memory,
I‘ve seen us through paths you will never see,
You’ve forsaken me in a place I know,
Love will hold fast; but I must let you go.