And when you leave
Don’t turn around
Or leave the door ajar,
Just walk away
Without a smile
Don’t look me in the eye.
I’ll strip away
The years between
And hold them in my hands,
The days we stole
Without a word
And meaning in a glance.
I’ll carve them all
Into my skin
The hours that we shared,
The joke we knew
Would always end
When laughter turned to tears.
So when you go
Don’t blow a kiss
To ease you on your way,
Just walk away
I’ll watch you leave
Through gently drowning eyes.
© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2019
Beautifully passionate, vibrant, emotionally intense and poignant, Chris. I so love images like this:
“I’ll strip away
The years between
And hold them in my hands,”
The theme of unrequited love always touches. Great work! By the way, I recommend you and the rest of the followers here to stop by my friend Mario Savioni, who is posting chapters of his novel “Pickles and Tarts”, where so many similar issues to this poem appear: unrequited love, illusion-delusion, dream-reality, human relationships in the digital era with a man and a woman who are extremely different in age, similar to Lolita, only with no underaged girl, though young. Here is an excerpt from chapter 7: “Frank was hoping she was attracted. He prefaced with “As a writer” to offer her an alternative, however, which would save his face in case she simply selected him accidentally.”: https://savioni.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/pickles-and-tarts-chapter-7/
Thank you for reading and I’m delighted that you enjoyed this. I will certainly check out your recommendation.
Thank you so much. You have no idea of what this recommendation means to me.
Oh how I love the last line.
Painfully beautiful.
Thought you might…and delighted that you did!
Chris, this is Exquisite!!!!
Thank you, so pleased that you liked this piece.
Lovely. You allude to so many emotions – even things like the selfishness, the hypocrisy of love, the inevitability of broken dreams, etc 🙂
Thank you, Rachael, it is heartening to know that you found so much in this.
Nice flow. I was touched.
Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts. Glad you enjoyed this.
” Through gently drowning eyes.” What a closing line. This is a beautiful. reflective non-judgemental and melancholic piece of verse which really tugged at my heart.
Thank you, Peter, your thoughts always mean alot to me and are greatly appreciated. I am, of course, delighted that this piece moved you. ☺
Your writing is filled with such great imagery.
This is heart wrenching
Thank you. I am delighted that this piece moved you.
It’s my pleasure!
You, sir, are a mighty fine writer! I’m enjoying my read!
And you are too kind. I am delighted that you have enjoyed what you have read. I appreciate your feedback.