Regret

If I could only speak to you once more

A different you from that my heart recalls

If I could see you old, set in your ways

With thinning hair and limbs grown weak with age.

If I could slice, excise, erase from time

Gleaming down the years, a memory sublime -

I could backspace, delete or overwrite

My hesitation, fear and flight.

If I could know you now, grown old and grey

Perhaps I could then wryly smile and say

“It was divine, so very right, so true

So perfect; but I was too young for you.”

.

If, only if! But memory paints you warm,

Still golden, ardent, fair in face and form

I will never taste the ardour of your kiss

But ever, ever, I’ll regret your loss.