My Four Seasons of Love
Dan Johnson
© 2 January, 2013
Some love affairs never end

Spring 1962
Life in Southern California in 1962 seemed like an endless dream; long warm days at the beach, long nights on Signal Hill, that’s where we made out, love touched me for the first time and I was locked in its grasp, thanks to you.
Gentle, sweet words did you speak…but they were just words and on that warm spring day you left. My friends warned me about your kind; ‘lothario’, ‘taker’ ‘not a giver’ that and much more is what they said.
For a long time my life was like a dingy swaying dipping on angry waves, a searcher lost in the abyss of an endless cave with no light to show me the way.

Summer 1982
During that long hot summer, you returned, acting as if nothing had happened, taking up where you left off. This time I cried ‘thief,’ I was not going to let you steal from me, again, no not again.
You begged, pleaded, cried remorsefully, but my heart was cold, I wanted nothing to do with you, yet for those twenty years you were gone, I had not given, or taken love from someone new.
You left town, or so I thought, going off to more welcome terrain to see what you could gain.

Fall 2002
In early fall you called, “Just passing through” is what you said, “I hope all is well, oh me, I’m fine…got to go, they’re calling my plane, please be well.”
And then you were gone, again.

Winter 2012
On those really cold sunny days in Portland you can see the shining snow white cap of Mt. Hood, a beautiful sight to see, but the sight that stopped me cold, took my breath, left me wordless, happened one day on a street car.
There you were, your dark full red hair still blazing in the sun, age has replaced your strong shoulders, now they bend slightly, wrinkles replaced your flawless face but you still smile the same way you did in 1962.
You were having trouble getting your wheel chair over the ramp to enter the street car and I couldn’t help but walk up behind you, bending slightly I whispered, “Can I help you?
As I pushed the chair on to the street car, and whispered in your ear, you knew it was me, you turned your head, tears fell and like that day 50 years ago, like gentle summer breezes blow, like silly kids finding love for the first time, we fell in love again.
I don’t know why it took so long but these are my four seasons of love.