A POEM FROM UNCLE CHARLIE

I loved you

    once in silence

And misery was all I knew

Trying so to keep my love

    from showing

All the while not knowing

   you loved me too

Yes, loved me,

   in lonesome silence

Your heart filled with

   dark despair

Thinking love would flame

    in you forever

And I’d never, never know

    the flame was there

Then one day we cast away

    our secret longing

The raging tide we held   

    Inside would hold no more

The silence – at last was broken! –

We flung wide our prison

    door

Every joyous word of love

    was spoken

And now there’s twice as

    much grief

Twice the strain for us;

Twice the despair,

Twice the pain for us

As we had known before

Uncle Charlie

Copied by Steve Haarman

November 30, 2022, ^