Reading:
Waterfall You go by the carriage drive, I’ll walk the other way. I’ll meet you at the waterfall, And if we miss each other I’ll see you home at five. Miss we did and I went back To find she’s not there either. Footsteps echo in an empty hall. I phoned and phoned The bearer of that visage Now imprinted on my heart. Always the robot voice replies, ‘The one you love can’t take Your call. She’s ready to depart. Please leave her a message.’ The default one is ‘sighs’. She did not ring on that day Nor even on the next Nothing in the voicemail And she didn’t send a text It was clear that she had gone. There was nothing I could say. But I should have known that, way Before she left me at the waterfall. Sentence came by letter: ‘I didn’t want to hurt you But done this way it’s better I’m not the one to be your wife. Your energy was killing me. I’m just not strong enough And I knew I had to leave. I need a calmer life.’ But beauty’s not the same as truth, Whatever Keats may say. And sex is not the same as love, Though not bad in its way. What did I learn by the waterfall? When loving push meets hormone shove Not power nor fame can stay The wanderlust of youth.
Peter Lloyd Jones 