Five Times Poem by DAVID TERRY

Five times I have known the feeling that makes life worth living for
One less than six have I been willing to it yet truly die for
I knew not then what I know today or what will come tomorrow
When through this pain I hope to grow and surrender daily sorrow

Truth was my first love, and radiant when danced we at fifteen
I did not understand how she loved me cold yet in-between
Her saddened life and brilliant heart had known rejection and regret
And into my heart she poured not truth, her legacy beget

And after truth, sweet honey fell like nectar from sunny skies
She opened my heart and gave her own, happying truth’s bad lies
When fell away I from her own grasp she fell away herself
Then bittered my heart and let it wither when she put it on her shelf

Out of the blue I met the ruler who would be my life’s queen
She wanted a family, husband, home and from me these she’d glean
We made sweet memories, children and time and accumulated wealth
Until her ruler’s controlling grip enslaved my soul’s unhappy health

Victory came next on winter’s night along my path quite unexpected
Where truth and honey and ruler’s love had left mine own neglected
For such short time we shared together what had long been omitted
From both our lives, what we wanted most, but could not see committed

Then last came sweet love in design we took to steal from fate
Replacing how hurt we both felt when wanted we love from hate
For years we strived for more from less until she stole her lies
Away to share them with another, myself she left to despise

So here I stand now upon gold shore still looking out to sea
At ships that sail away from here, away from where I be
I stand here hoping what I learned from truth and her sister others
Can be fulfilled in an unknown heart beating lovingly in another