Terry and Edie

I never got to see your smile at dawn
or the reflection of the sun as it rose
in your eyes.
I never got to smell the sweetness
of your hair
or feel your soft skin against mine.
I fell for a stranger,
yet it felt like I'd always known you.
I close my eyes and I could picture
your smile even before I knew it.
The second we met I knew it was you,
like our marriage had been arranged in the stars.
But you called it a fantasy,
said we were just kidding ourselves,
but I know you felt something too.
Were you just scared?
Were you scared that you found what you've
always wanted in me?
Were you scared of the struggle we'd have to
go through to make things work?
Were you scared I'd go out for smokes
one day and never come back?
But I think about you every day.
I think about what it would be like to
wake up with you in my arms.
I think of what could have been.
If it makes you feel better
I'll say I've moved on.
But the truth is a piece of me
will always be waiting for you.
We were one in the same
and you were once in a lifetime.
Twenty years from now
I'll put on a record or catch
On The Waterfront on TV,
or my daughter will ask me to
watch The Wizard of Oz with her
and I'll think of you.
I'll think of the girl
"Eyes Like Emerald City"
was written for.
I'll wonder;
I'll remember;
I'll wish Lilly was ours.
Ten years from now
I'll be sitting on an empty beach
on a cold December evening with
another woman and I'll think of
meeting you in Montauk.
Two years from now I'll be
in the Pacific Northwest
I'll think of the rain, of our sailboat,
of you sketching while I write.
I'll whisper to myself
"They're all for you dear,
I'll write the album of the year."
In three weeks when the clock
strikes midnight and we ring in the new year
I'll think of you and the kiss your promised
me.