A Poem du jour

on your birthday

it was so important to keep a book, to tape a movie
so I could share them with you later,
to watch you watch it, to read your face while you read it
so I could throw away the book we'd read
so I could give away the tape we'd see
for the experience we'd share would be there forever

Now, that forever came and went away,
the books are being slowly sold
the tapes all smashed and trashed,
(some, though, replaced by DVDs and such)
but the lingering sensation of void, of loss
of "what-should-have-happened"
is slowly draining me.

Anticipation of happiness is so much nicer
than the aftertaste of abandonment