(A lone voice whispers)
If I hadn't met you in my old life of solving crimes
In its ever-changing silvery mists
Filled with dark secrets and unknown or expected unwanted emotions
That can suddenly fluctuate between love and yearnings
In intense twelve-hour shifts
Things that can drive a man nuts with all its deep cuts
I never would have understood the genuine price
The goddess of love can bring
To make your old world sing
For Lady Aprodites sweet soul all-consuming kiss
That unforgettable one which makes your heart pulse with crazy feelings
No one can ever predict
I wouldn't have known the intense thrill
Of running like a pair of reckless wild young convicts
Emotionally through all the green fields that suddenly opened up before us
Days and even longer nights
Filled with youthful dreams of rightful victories and short future stories
Overflowing with such epic glories
Daydreams where we'd both be magnificent heroes and against all odds
Always win
For profound hope used to faithfully persist
Racing blindly past all the sad lonely old men and women
Who like me
Took a seat at Loves high table
All the while foolishly knowing the risks
Tragic souls who now sit unsatisfied like me
With life as their only husband or wife
On their white-tiled porches
Or behind white painted windows
Surrounded by falling invisible white feathers from unseen grief-filled kingdoms
I sometimes still see with my supernatural gift
My second sight in the middle of every night
When the visions come calling
Demanding I look beyond the reach of that irregular white lightning
That breaches the dark skies
Invisible to most like wondering ghosts
As it searches for new victims to strike
To bless and anoint them like John the Baptist
To be one of lifes lonely wanderers
Cursed to lay untethered and unripe as soon as it hits
I can still remember though
How we once challenged the almighty Zeus
And all his many faithful other gods
Thinking if this was life
This could only be as good as it gets
Uttered wild oaths of fidelity to discard all spiritual permits
To his secret fraternities and revoked any unspoken unions
Raised hell when the moment needed its energies and courage
To break all spells
But like thieves in the middle of one mournful night
Hunting for things written on their supernatural shopping lists
And tracking and following us like mythical bounty hunters
Time and his cousin, Solomon
Caught up and separated us
Like junkyard dogs
As we slumbered one fateful day
And took you away forever
My life's only lover
But I pray somehow when I transfer into another lifetime
Into the Great In-Between
And when I finally walk through those alabaster gates
Of that version of Heaven
I hope and pray I find that familiar old house
You swore you'd once again build
On the corner of a new Whitechapel
On the left
At that moment if our wishes come to be true
I'll know then we'll be together forever
And when the time comes
To slowly dissolve into the everlasting purple and green hue
Of the endless Continuum
With our last ever shared sweet kiss
Before we transcend
We'll both know deep down inside
We've beaten death at the very end
And I'll smile because I'll be reunited with you again
But until then
Even though fate may have separated and broken our trust
I'll never stop playing lollipop at 3 am
Like Kojak on dark nights
With my Colt 45 Service Revolver
Just waiting for that familiar courageous loud bang
When I find the strength to pull the trigger
Then all I can do is hope and pray
God will reunite and absolve us
Copyright John Duffy
