A very moving broken hearted love story

“The Old Wedding Rings----“
That ol’suitcase in the closet holds a thousand memories,---
It also holds a secret that no one ever sees,---

Hidden in the bottom beneath photographs and things,---
Lies a broken life and story in a pair of wedding rings,---

Many times I sat and cried and wished it could have been,---
That she had seen me as a sweetheart instead of just a friend,---

Stains of my tears are dry and old from so many years ago,---
She never had any idea that I loved her so,---

A thousand times I should have asked , but afraid I’d have to go,---
And end our beautiful friendship if she had said no,---

I wasn’t tall , or handsome, she only saw me like a brother,---
Her best friend: Yes I was, but sad, she loved another,---

Tall good looking and doing well, he took her heart away,---
I sat there quietly in despair , and shared their wedding day,---

Her joyfulness and glowing love , I couldn’t help but cry,---
And share her love and happiness and wish that he was I,---

Tears of self pity, came every day when I was alone,---
With a broken hearted pain, the likes, I’d never known,---

The rings I placed within that suitcase many years ago,---
How many years , how many tears, did they witness flow,---

I lost her , but her memory, would never fade for me ,---
I prayed that she’d be happy, but that was not to be,---

Her heart was slowly broken until no love would remain,---
She struggled thru a troubled life in bitter lonesome pain,---

Hopeless now and lonely, with no way out to see,---
They said that she was coming home, God how happy I would be,---

Life had brought us both full circle, age might knock us down again,---
The bloom of youth is over, , But I’m still her dearest friend,---

Thru our eyes of happiness, I knew that love would grow,---
Our friendship just a tender love, we’d known so long ago,---

So, from that old broken suitcase, I took the rings once more,---
This time I’d take them to her, like I should have done before,---

It tore out my heart to see her ,now my pain would never end,---
No joy and no happiness, would I ever see again,---

On my knees I asked forgiveness, Oh I’d give everything and more,---
She was just as beautiful, as she was before,---

Oh God please now, give me strength, I know I’ve lost it all,---
My bitter tears won’t help me and a thousand more will fall,---

Then as they played her favorite hymn for everyone to sing,---
On her cold and lifeless hand, I placed those wedding rings.---

  tom leftwich