You presented me your love,
Heart, mind, and soul sweeping over me,
An irresistible wave crashing upon,
The unmovable rock of my immature heart.

The spray exploded into an evanescent mist,
That covered our world completely,
And left you dazzled by an endless rainbow,
And left my blinded by the briny fog of my new love.

You offered free, unfettered, true and selfless love,
While I saw not you but a wondrous fantasy,
You yearned to build a nest in a nearby tree,
I yearned to spread my wings and learn to fly.

You were a woman, and I was a boy,
Not in age but in emotional maturity,
I listened attentively but heard your truth,
As through through an ocean of tears yet to come.

I loved you more than life all that I could,
But not, alas, more than my ego or myself,
I would have died for you, would gladly still,
And yet I killed your spirit most unwittingly.

I should have loved you more, loved myself less,
I should have loved you enough to let you go,
I should have listened with my heart and not my ears,
And seen you with my soul and not my eyes.

I've sown the seeds of true love on fallow ground,
But watered it with vinegar thinking it rain water,
And tender tendrils grew to gnarly trees,
That bore a bitter fruit for our nourishment.

The fault is mine, as is the shame,
I should have taken better care,
To tend our beautiful orchard,
Grown wild with the weeds of my neglect.

I cannot change the past, were that I could,
Too late to make amends, ungrow the weeds,
Or make wild lemon trees grow pomegranates,
But I can say I was wrong, can say I'm sorry.

I loved you then, my love,
I love you now with all my heart,
I will love you tomorrow and I hope,
Will love you even the day after I die.

It is the great tragedy of man,
That we too often learn vital truths,
Too late in life for you if not for me,
To profit from the knowledge gained through pain.

I would do anything to change the past,
To see you happy, not bitter, sad and anger filled,
To see you blossom as you should have done,
With a better mate, in a nest of deepest roots.

All I can say is that I am truly sorry,
That I love you truly and completely,
And that with God's grace I will do so as long as stars shine,
And there remains the faintest hope of my redemption.