Once Then and Now
……………………………………………………………………

Once I thought love would
Continue to molest me
In short and intense fleeting
Nights…like gale force driven
Waves…crashing on sun baked
Sands.

Once…what I perceived
As just another night…
Of fleeting lust and passion…
Was another man’s…no…
Most men’s fantasy…
Most often I cried myself to sleep…
Was it loneliness or boredom
That haunted me ?

Once…”I love you”…was just
Another lie told by me and
Another sleepy beauty…
Because we didn’t know
What else to say…
To ease the guilt.

Once…I doubted you,
And the words you did
Not say…
To try and convince me…
Your soft and gentle ways,
Said so much more.

Once desperation cornered me…
With you my only savor…I tried
To run…and ran blind…
Straight into your arms.

Once I opened my eyes
To find you…holding me,
A sense of peace came
Over me…briefly…before
The fear of luring love
Settled in…
Overwhelming me.

I remember once…
The sense of pain
And emptiness…
Inflicted by the bite
Of alone…
Funny how proven love,
So selectively bleached
Those memories away.

Now as I stand,
Within the grace
Of your love…
I am in awe with the
Gift you have given me…

Once I learned to trust
Your love.









Erin Woods