Everything Has Changed

A free-verse poem featuring two lovers gone cold in the time of pandemic

I don't need to write you a poem
and say everything has changed,
but here I am, anyway -
miles and miles
of skin and land away
from where you are,
aching for a lifetime we know too well
we would never get back, no,
so I grab the pen and
do the only thing I'm capable of.
Had I known it would be our last date,
I wouldn't have fought over what to order
or tell you your jacket was quaint enough
to be hung in an antique shop.
I would probably have kissed you
before I said goodbye,
mark your cheek the sweetest crimson.
Now, when I hear you laugh over the phone,
it doesn't have the same chimes
to when you snicker behind my ear.
You tell me to stay safe at home
and I don't bother to pinpoint
that I am no longer in your arms
and I wouldn't be for quite a long time, no.
You tell me you can't wait to see me again
and I ask you to please tell your mom
I said hello.
I'm always the first one to drop the call.

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

This has a forlorn sadness to it, an acceptance that perhaps one has not helped the situation by adopting a defensive posture that has frightened off an erstwhile romance.