I realised too late That I should not have Tidied us into separate picture frames When we could Perhaps Have shared one between us Like those other lovers Who sit together on swings And giddy themselves And that I should not have Scribbled over every thought And possibility And guess I should not have hemmed back The inch of romance I once set aside for you Because the only thing that stopped me Was fear You remain my one love story The sole great un-requited affair The unspoken words Between each conversation line The coffee stains on the pages of my novel That will forever anticipate a you that is past And you remain my one love story You are the love story that I told myself Was not love And we were never anything other than silence And holes in the conversation Like dropped stitches When we were twelve You asked me out via someone else And I stamped ******* your offered palm Never stopping to learn Whether you meant it And I hope now that you did Because then it is not so foolish to call you a love affair And I still do not quite believe that I love you Only I saw you today And my chest Ceased to be that glacier it chooses to be Pinned under the lining of every coat I own And you said Hey! And I hoped I wasn't imaging it That you were pleased to see me Because I know that the Global Warming Of my world had to be worth something to you And I have always been something of an Introvert And you have always been something of a skateboarder But you are immortal In my Sort-of Maybe-not Half-way Down-trodden Hold-back Confused melting As I paint the pavement With the contents of my Ribcage.