To sleep, perchance to dream

They say the saddest thing is
Unrequited love.

I’ve found a thing,
Which takes a place above

Unrequited love is farce,
Transcending feelings - on one side sparse.
Grief wracked we wonder, why not me?
I’m twice the man - can she not see?

Mournful mornings,
Feelings flayed,
A cosmic joke on us is played.

But another thing entire is requited love denied.
That’s a holy feeling died,
Conscience’s coward -
Self deprived.

While together,
Blissful rapture.
What no words could say, a look could capture.
Your shining eyes, with love did speak;
Sang journey’s end, that which I seek.

I went from standing all alone
To sitting on our coupled throne.
Scarce touches seemed to presage bliss
Your every gaze a gentle kiss.
Your smile made my world seem whole.
Such promise plucked my bashful soul.

And shouldn’t love just make us free?
But fantasy found, here not to be.

On the brink,
You stop to think.
You ponder the imagined cost.
You pull away - our moment lost.
Life is long and longer still
When abnegation’s what you will.

But to turn your back on something real;
Give back to heaven what angel’s steal?
Take our gift and throw it away?
Heed only what your fear can say?

And while we yearned for magic’s touch
You dwelled upon dread’s tragic clutch.
Deny our future; deny yourself
There is no other kind of wealth.
That feeling we felt..? Fate did give
Us all we truly need to live.

If life’s a ladder
While we climb
We’ll think upon this other time
And look below at all we’ve left
And shed a tear, for love bereft.

If life’s a dream, one day we’ll wake
And look upon what we did make
And think upon a long past theft
And shed a tear, for love bereft.

If my life’s a story,
When it is told
Someday when I am very old
My children press around my bed
Their children making mankind’s thread.

My wife will hold my shaking hand
My mind is roving heartbeats spanned.
I’ll ponder reasons, find final rhyme
And close my eyes the one last time.
And before it is not quite too late
I’ll think of our unhappened fate.

Godspeed and goodbye my dear.
Be happy, strong and persevere.
And may your journey take you far.
But think of me when you see stars.

-Unknown