Poetry Thursday - Past Comes Present

I was 21 when I embarked on my first and very ill-fated marriage and one of the things you discover as you unbury the past are the bench post reminders of turning points in your life. The collapse of my first marriage would certainly qualify.

Back then I was so filled with anguish. So filled with despair and confusion. Fast-forward now 38 years, and I have a lot of the answers that eluded me back then.

Tonight I found a sheet of paper that has survive the trip to present day and the poem written on it reminds me vividly of the young woman who doesn't exist anymore except in memory. She has grown strong and is better in all ways, great and small. Here is that poem.

Landscapes

The coffee shop was our first battleground;

tea and toast between us.

What is God? Where is God?

Does God exist at all?

***

Offering and withholding -

The ivory tower caged your mind

You opened yourself - I entered

Into a fools paradise.

***

Oneness was an illusion

I was a part but apart

You tempted, teased, taunted

Gave me your body but not your heart.

***

You wanted someone like me.

Why not me?

What did he have to give

but living death?

***

School, work, marriage gone

Life like a sleeping earth.