To The Girl In The Red Dress

To The Girl In The Red Dress

Fifty years, five decades, half a century ago
We held hands, walked along the sand
Your smile and laughter, the sound of your voice
Filled my heart with such incredible joy
Those memories came back with a photograph of you found unexpectedly
And the heart remembered too the joy and pain
The heartbreak
Fifty years, five decades, half a century ago.

Like now and then, just like yesterday and today
As if no time had passed at all
And yet it has
The best of what we could give we gave to someone else
So what is left to give each other now if nothing more
We gave our own children, and their children, life
Not you and I together
Like now and then, just like yesterday and today

Fifty summers, fifty autumns having passed, fifty winters having changed into spring
The sudden, unexpected email yesterday too much at once,
The turbulence of words forcing you to throw up your arms crossed to protect yourself
That too much time has passed, that indeed the ocean has washed away all traces of our footsteps
That now we are older than the trees planted from seedlings in ’69 having shed so many leaves
And skyscrapers now stand higher than the ones we knew have changed the LA skyline
Dare we trespass into the silence of time gone by from then to now, from yesterday to today
Fifty summers, fifty autumns having passed, fifty winters having changed into spring