I Loved and Lost
It was a long time ago,
but her face is still etched in my mind
since the day she came to live with us,
my aunt, a young widow.
Her real name she only knew,
for everybody called her Rosy,
because she had pink cheeks,
flushing like the petals of rose.
I was instantly attracted by her charm,
not because she was such a beautiful lady,
I adored her for she was so caring, so loving,
maybe because in me she found her unborn child.
In the evening after she finished her chores,
she would tell me engrossing stories,
her soldier husband dead in action told her,
the narrative of his fight in hostile lands.
I could see tiny drops of tear shine
in the corner of her pensive eyes.
As she told why the soldier didn’t return,
I noticed a veneer of grief cover her pink face.
In the gleam of the twilight hour,
her face glowed like a blooming flower,
suffused with the flash of the crimson sun,
and aunt Rosy turned into a rose I loved.
The gust of pent-up pain she suffered long,
crumbled the petals on a stormy night,
on the last fragrance she flew to her husband,
and a beautiful flower in my life I lost.
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January 21, 2023
Contest : Loved And Lost
Sponsored by : Regina McIntosh
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