Memories fade with each passing mile
When we were one if only for a while
Young hearts await life’s call
Surrounded by love without any wall
Only twenty we took each other
Left behind our fathers and mothers

We kept each other safe at night
Our bodies reposed and holding on tight
Dreams of children occupied our thoughts
Work and play, other shoulds and noughts
Before we knew it, the children were gone
To find their own lives and sing their song

We sacrificed for family for that’s all we knew
Now sitting alone in an empty pew
Where did you go? Why did you leave?
Life’s cruel vagaries are quick to deceive
I still feel your presence on cold winter nights
Reading your book by a fire warm and bright

Love never dies, but it sometimes fades
Tears replace laughter over many a decade
Indifference invades like a cancerous growth
Till we become strangers who dare risk to emote
Hearts once young and full of hope
Broken now and left to cope

A single marker now defines your life
Silence pervades and cuts like a knife
I’m home again but you’re not there
To share my dreams when once you cared
Memories, once lost, slowly return
Of two young lovers with nary a concern