"A Remembrance Of a Pleasant Madness"

The lane wasn’t as cold as the name suggests

But the breeze whispered her name through the trees

The fallen leaves enticing us

To just come and lay down for awhile

Fall in love among the dizzying spirits of the past

And the hope of a longing once foretold

Only in the fading dreams of youth

And the faith held tight within an aging heart.

These are the steps I always love to retrace

Just like the beautiful lines on her face

Where my fingertips rest every time I kiss her

And I’m reminded, always lovingly reminded

Of holding her closely where ghosts peered from behind trees

To watch love they once had longed for in their time

And we, two glorious lovers in the making,

Melted in the quiet of the evening

Oblivious to the cares of the world spinning round us.

I do not pretend to know what the future holds

No more then I knew what would come from that night

As we ran back to the car, the angry wind

Whipping through our hair and clothes

Taking refuge in the dry interior of an automobile

Whose windows fogged under fumbling fingers

Heaving breaths and heavy sighs

And the rain fell, pitter patter on the glass

Our lips found the places we both had watched in anticipation

Silently begging the other for that rejected kiss to come again

And find its mark on torturous hearts

And wounded souls

Parched aching lips

Desiring to taste the delirium of this

The most pleasant of madness.