-- Promises Everywhere --

John Herlihy

Promises are everywhere,

Just not here.

Your message a promise,

Still you are not near.

The dawn arrives as a promise,

Here comes the day.

Yet what good is that promise,

Bad news to relay.

Your smile sits there as a promise,

Temptingly close.

That can easily turn into a frown,

To make me feel morose.

The day’s dusks their promise allude,

That twilight will arrive.

But if those bulky storm clouds intrude,

Twilight never seen alive.

Faithfulness sets forth as a promise,

Never integrity to betray.

Freezing cold and hoarfrost promise chill,

To ride in their open sleigh.

We make some promises in good faith,

We cannot keep.

This is how we let others down,

After we took the leap.

Indeed, a promise claims to be a promise,

Never to be shattered.

Yet if the promise a promise broken,

The promise never mattered.

At poem’s end, promises still everywhere,

To feel protected.

But an empty promise will leave you nowhere,

Feeling rejected.

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(c) John Herlihy 11 June 2020