Now I see with the wisdom of age and spirituality
that even though you loved me for only
two summers and left me for another,

that even if you had stayed with me and got married
to me, our romance would have ended just like
those two summers — but when one of us died.

Thus, those two wonderful summers were enough for me,
like living in a teenage fairy tale that
was going to last ever after.

Though the ending broke my innocent, young heart,
I grew stronger and wiser in my relationships
with women thereafter.

And at least our romance didn’t end with one of us dying,
leaving irreparable grief in the heart of the other, as would
have happened if we had spent a lifetime together.

Bob Boyd