Then And Now Poem by Lonnie Hicks

All Time
cavorted in our jangled past
inside our trembling reachings
through make-ups and break ups
love gained and lost
regained and lost
heartbreakingly again
and yet
even as that aching
recedes in my side view mirror

you somehow still sit my passenger seat
that place is reserved for you
as I drive my interior roads

you often unexpectedly appear
roadside hitchhiker seeking entry
beckoning to my heart
love's return
as I open the passenger side door.

This is my nurturing illusion
one perhaps I see too often

to be real

but it's comforting
in my imaginings
even as I see your face

recede as I pass

I love the illusion of it.

More so in the deep of night

When I am laid resting

wanting the feel of you beside me

but not able to look

for fear

you'll evaporate

and I will again

be crushed in the aching dark.

So I too
conjure you
in my future tense
where you'll return

in person

behind you
the trailing wake of our lovings

caressing for me then
in its sweetest aspects;

where I will feel your mouth upon mine

where we are unseen

sweep away

inside our abiding bliss;

where memories ours

are then
and now
stronger

than mere reality.