I Watched You Leaving

I watched you leaving, saw you wave.
Your face lined with sickness
body bruised and beaten
eyes set in a mask neither happy nor sad
the lover that I could not save

It was not the first time, both of us
did not have the courage
hopeless and abandoned
living in a world and unable to plan
a future where the pain would end

I knew you’d phone me, later on
and then I could tell you
love endures unshaken
in spite of everything that refuses to change
the woman who commands my heart

Louis William Rose
June 1994