it happened once
upon a time

a place with a piano
   much wine
  & cozy talk
they left late
   tied in an amiable hug
heading for their separate quarters
   each knew
   the other shared
   with someone else

passing through the old library
she gently pulled him down
    upon a persian rug
    and lifted her skirts
    quite irresistibly

they melted in bliss

knowing it would happen
   only once
in their time

         * *

Innocence.
Laughter.
Adventure.
Kindness.
Achievement.
Disappoint­ment.
Victory.
Defeat.
Honor.
Strength.
Weakness.
Loneliness.
Con­nection.
Choice.
Paradox.
Change.
Beauty.
Pain.
Compassion.
Anger­.
Courage.
Fear.
Drama.
Joy.
Surrender.
Peace.

All of this is life.
Will you embrace it,
or hide until you meet your most real moment?

It is odd
How being alone in the dimness
Makes it easier for one to think
And re-live moments
I re-lived all the moments I had with you
Just the thought of remembering them makes me feel so dizzy
Then in my mind
I made up a conversation between you and I
Which to be frank
Never happened
I made up things for you to say
I heard your voice saying them
I wish if it was real
That my imagination would come to life

Take a moment.
Your life is taking you places.
And I will be forgotten
Amidst all the faces.
Take a moment.
For some, day it might all make sense.
My words can be deceitful.
But you can hear my love in the silence.

A dark room lit by fireflies
A frozen heart melted by her eyes
A touch so great it gives butterflies
A feeling so real it couldn't be a lie

A dark room lit by his smile
A heart warmed by the sound of his voice
A moment that is more than worthwhile
A feeling so great it makes her rejoice

A dark room lit by their happiness
Two hearts that can overcome any darkness
Two hands intertwined
And a feeling that will last until the end of time

the previous listener, who did so faintly and in a manner foreign to me, sat reasonably as I do now, or perhaps lain starry and jaded on some soft lawn riddled with the paused movements of those who watched, clouded with distraction, the life of a sweet nothing drown in descent from above as they cheered and screamed for it, for that meaningless treasure tainted by the vanity of their own desire, ignorant of the listener, of her own treasure then forming, as something warm and enduring in the seat of her chest, something to brood, to analyze, to cherish for a length, at great odds with the fleet and trivia that so dominated the struct of their noire.

but the listener had none of this, gulfed from the shaking and pressing, shielded the same from its symbol and write, opting to push for those few golden moments most certainly approaching her as the rest wraithed past, softly and shyly granting the scarcest and most shamefully starved of treelines, roadways and ballparks and wire staff, knowing but keeping that the few she would most deeply and fondly remember would be just these.

and so the listener and her lover stood past, sweeping over the artificial earths with little concern, not pausing or skipping for a moment to witness the wonder in the world around them and to soak up some indefinable fraction of its infinite offerings. from lain block to patch grass they strode, searching for their one moment, for that which so surely stood staunch and unmoving at some near point in their passage, but which always seemed to elude them, to taunt and hang and cackle in the face of their steadily growing contempt.

and then, as the crowd deserted their peaks for the safe and steady and trough, allowing those moments of elation to slip from them with ease, the listener let likewise all that was precious to her from her grasp, and fell into a similar place, one of deserted lows and recollections of the brightness that lay behind, of those very moments that felt their way independently into her heart and her soul, and left her love beside her, forever looking up into the dark.