LOVE WASTED

A love unrequited, cut down, unreturned

Like a bad disc that can’t be remastered

With so many questions unanswered or spurned

It had ended in sudden disaster

The winds of attraction, unhesitant blew

Flirtations both ways, with persuasion 

Eager, expectant, time rapidly flew

They looked forward to every occasion

Addiction would surely have been a relief

Compared to his rabid obsession

His passion, unbridled, yet ever so brief

Had turned deadly with rapid aggression. 

His critical stare and volatile moods

Each day, chipped away at his reason

While she grew more pensive, he’d openly brood

And she feared what might come in due season

She’d never met any so reckless and fun

As the man who she fell for completely

Ignoring the signs and her friends' words of caution

She let herself love him more deeply

A trade off, some say, for the course that she took

When one night in the heat of the moment

She cried out his name though he gravely mistook

Her; his own jealous heart was in torment

In the space of a heartbeat, his lust turned to rage

Rising up from where they’d been entangled

And paying no heed to her screams he engaged

His fists, then with bare hands he strangled

The one thing more precious to him than his life

Now lifeless and limp in his fingers,

Then, spent from his fury he reached for his knife

While the essence of both of them lingered

Piercing the night air his screams went unheard 

Then weeping, he wilted beside her

Their still forms cemented not saying a word

Their blood, sweat and tears dried together

A shame, that these lovers, whose lives had begun 

Were cut down by a jealous fool, wasted

Folks saw it coming but each held their tongue.

Now its tart burning smart, they all tasted

They buried the lovers in naked embrace

The same way the neighbors had found them

His last anguished kisses still covered her face

As they lowered them both in the ground, then 

The small group that gathered to show their respect

For the lovers, their own hearts; now breaking.

Each vowed in themselves that they’d never reject

The cry of another’s who’s aching.

Love Wasted ©by Naomi Hinshaw-Hersh

5/4/2011

All rights reserved.