marshmallow heart

I saw him today

the way he was back in 1967

It took me back to my ninth year

on this god forsaken planet

and his power to light me up

in a way no one else ever could

… or would again…

He was cocky on the outside

with a tender marshmallow heart

and when he saw me

even though I was nothing

he seemed to light up too

I was a child

to be seen and not heard

I’d been told often enough

a lab rat by the way I was treated

but to him, to him

I was a gem whose sparkle lit his world

He may have been nineteen

when I was nine

an innocent in love

but he listened

and spoke to me

like an equal

I loved him

as he did me

Together we were a torch

that would never burn out

at least that was how it felt

I didn’t yet know how things went

in the grown up world

maybe he didn’t either

It would be another ten years

before I learned the hard lesson

that shattered my soul…

But when I saw him

just now

I remembered

when I was nine

and my heart leapt once again

with a joy unquenchable

and soared for a moment at least

until, at the sight of my aging hands

it began to sink

like a leaky creaky old blimp

reminding me that I grew up

and he gave his marshmallow heart

to someone else...