An Echo Returned
(again for Chris)
My heart was recaptured when I saw you again;
yet happily bonded even more to another.
You retained your trademark smile, laid back grace;
kept your easy style. Yet your tan, handsome face
had become more attractive, more distracting;
demanding me to stare at you. You again
trapped me, confounded me, liberated me.
You came this time on your own to honor
my brother, when I saw you again.
No longer a boy, now man in full; within you
the deity stronger now than when first
my gaze was snared by your liquid laughter.
You've kept the fires of play burning within
never forgetting with who and where you've spent time.
For three years I kept that photo of you
as I listened for an echo of love.
I fell in love with first those years ago
and I'm in love with you now once again.
For I still see within you the lost summers
not tossed away but retained and cherished,
in your tan, in your smile. In your eyes
I still see the years of youth
stripped of unhappiness and difficulties,
held and polished, the sunshine sparkling.
Your grin still outshines the opal galaxies
which populate our universe. When I was depressed,
your bronzen radiance cheered me,
and in me an echo of love returned.
Amidst you I thought I'd always be breathless;
When you came looking for me to take your leave
( was too busy with my niece), I was deeply stirred,
so all I could manage in my wonder was to
clasp your hand, offer my hospitality.
As I'd waited for an echo of love
then I think an echo of love retuned.
I'm a fool to want you so, when I want to keep
the sun for myself which would tarnish, destroy it.
The love you emanate for the world must be
shared lest it die; confused love I send to you
must not be echoed else you wither, your smile fade.
I waited for an echo of love from you
and I saw reflected in your life - contentment, joy, love -
an echo returned.
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Copyright © 1998 John B Cooke IV
House o' Poetry
Jack'n'Jim World