For a love that lasted a single summer's day...

Well, here it is. All I'll say is 25 lines is 12 and 13 put together. Make of that what you will.

       Benjamin

We were both children – do you remember?

Much too young and with too hot a fire

In that day of August or September…

I loved you and you loved me – with desire,

With the wholeheartedness of childhood,

With a love that the years do not tire.

Do you still think of me in your manhood,

Recalling the time a fair-haired girl

For a short while in that clear pool stood?

I was the younger and waters did twirl

As I swam in the brightness of the sun,

My skin always the colour of pearl…

Therapeutically, the day was done:

You had come visit your ailing mother,

While I decided to have some fun.

You took me to the watery cloister

And there we just talked – about simple lives,

About astronomy and stars’ flicker,

About you and your childish pebble dives –

We were children on a fair summer’s day,

And we did not know the love that survives.

I later thought about having my way,

And of a blind search in your own city;

But can one so fragile have her say

For a love that lasted a single summer’s day?

                           18 December 2010