I thought I would only be writing three poems about my lost junior high school sweethearts. I was wrong and here's another one. My sad recollections of her were especially strong last February when I passed my 50th birthday. You always remember your first love and I have a very good memory for other things, so why not?

If I could go back in time,

I would hold you,

If I could go back in time,

I would kiss you.


I would do the things

a young boy does

when he steals

a young girl's heart.


I think I must have loved you

from the time I saw you

across the schoolyard

as we sat on separate buses.


I tried to put you

out of my mind,

I would be moving soon,

but then I didn't

and soon for one brief

moment we came to be.


Your eyes, your smile,

all things of beauty

at least to my heart,

But all too soon,

those things were gone,

as we drifted apart

yet in some ways you never left.


You stayed in the haunting way

first loves stay

in the wind and the shadows.


When you were a sailor,

did you know

you were following me

around my lonely radio town?


My life since then

has sometimes been

a pit of loneliness

where the steady rain

whispers your name...

Melanie, Melanie.

If I could go back in time...