as the empty, humid summer turns to fall
and cool winds start to blow,
I think back to spring,
when I stood on that stage,
exhausted,
with spotlights blinding me,
impairing my view of the audience.
but I could see you sitting there,
smirking,
in the seats closest to stage right.
an empty juice bottle in your hands
filled with recently picked river flowers.
we knew, even then,
at the very start of the adventure we took together,
that this wouldn't be an insignificant moment,
that not one moment between us would be meaningless,
and that not matter how hard we tried to forget them,
these moments would replay in our minds forever,
or at least in mine.

I will never dance on that stage again,
I will never look out to see you smiling at me from the audience.
You will never spend a day picking flowers for me at the river,
I wish you never had in the first place.