It could be Constable or Rembrandt

Either one could paint the scene

It’s a meadow full of flowers

By a gently flowing stream,

There’s a water wheel that’s turning

Swallows dance in skies of blue

Two lovers wander by the river

Each of them whisper,” I love you”,

But what’s missing from this picture?

Just what is it we can’t see?

They look so right together

Two hearts in perfect harmony,

See the way she gazes at him

And the way he gazes back

They’re so in love with one another

You don’t often witness that,

They seem like such a happy couple

And so obviously in love

He’s so tender and attentive

To everything she says and does,

But what’s missing from this picture?

There, in the shadows, out of sight

Is the husband she’ll return to

When she leaves her love tonight,

He’s the one she made her vowels to

The one who always made her proud

 She’s his wife, his love, his angel

The one he built his world around,

He’ll be sitting waiting for her

Listening for the door to close

And he’ll be smiling as she enters

He knows, but she don’t know he knows,

And he can’t say his accusations

He tries but cannot find his voice

So afraid that he might lose her

If she has to make a choice,

But what’s missing from this picture

Is the letter that she wrote

Waiting upstairs in their bedroom

Is her final goodbye note,

In which she tells to him her reasons

As though he’s going to understand

Why his universe is ending

So she can love another man,

But it’s not until she’s gone he finds it

And reads her words through tear filled eyes

He holds a pistol to his temple

Says, “I love you”, then he dies,

But what’s still missing from this picture

This final scene of tragedy

Is that the lover she has gone to

Has a loving family,

He has a wife and two young children

To him the whole thing was a game

A little mutual satisfaction

He thought his lover felt the same,

But she had thought it was forever

And in spite she tells his wife

Which ends another marriage

And ruins four more lives,

So what’s missing from this picture

And so many more besides

There are no winners, only losers

Broken promises and lies,

There are teardrops by the thousands

And such heart rending goodbyes

But there are no winners, only losers

Broken promises and lies.

By S.E.Ralph

8-1-2012