It never occurred to me

It never occurred to me
           that you’d one day
become a memory
           and that I’d struggle
to recall the many details
           of the all the times
the days and nights
           we spent together

In my mind I recall
           the humming birds
that so fascinated me
           that would appear
out of nowhere
           their iridescent plumage
the whirr of their wings
           holding them in suspension
as they sucked
           the succulent nectar
from their chosen blooms
           and the animated dance
with which they choreographed
           their disappearance

For a while we shared
           a common language
that of pleasure together
           and for a while I believed
that the love was genuine
           so perfect and so complete
that it could never possibly
           end

And those parched fields
           where the cattle grazed
through the long hot days
           and the white egrets
that accompanied their shadows
           feeding off the ticks and flies
that their ungainly shuffle
           disturbed

It never occurred to me
           that one day memories
would fade and that the mind
           would slowly wind down
into an empty silence and that our love
           would be little more than. . . .

John Lyons