Till This Day

She'd never been there, 

at the Evanston

drug store soda fountain

but on that day,

at that time...

I'd never been there,

at the Evanston

drug store soda fountain

but on that day,

at that time...

Our eyes touching,

the girl on the kitty-corner stool

and myself as I awaited a hot fudge sundae

our eyes touched and held

till moments later,

desperate to meet,

rising from my stool,

going to the girl on the kitty-corner stool

awkward words materialized

then, a prayer answered,

her telephone number given

and later that day a date made.

With the first kiss 

for me,

the thought

of this girl on the kitty-corner stool

as a gift from God

when mutual love blossomed

and breathed

the warm vapor

of heart numbing

beauty...

Of heart numbing

beauty until...

Love blossomed for near a year

until,

as a castle of sand,

as smoke in the wind

love was gone,

gone along with the girl

on the kitty-corner stool.

Now,

though the years

are so many...

The years so many

that were we to meet

I would not know

the girl on the

kitty-corner stool

though,

still to this day,

though fifty-five years are gone,

still,

to this day

I sense the warm vapor

of the heart numbing

beauty

of this girl,

the girl on the

kitty-corner stool

whose love,

our love,

gone...

gone

as a castle of sand,

gone

as smoke in the wind,

gone,

the girl on the

kitty-corner stool.