Precious Memories of Yesterday

I often try to open that magic door

Wishing and hoping for evermore

To find you waiting in the shade of our favourite tree

Where we would often rest, just you and me

Is it so long ago since you went away

To me it seems only yesterday

Friends tell me that life goes on and time will heal

I smile and pretend that’s exactly how I feel

I still see you waving as our troop ship slowly sailed away

Your comforting letters I read by night and day

Constant thoughts of you despite dangers, heat or drenching rain

The reassuring sweet embrace when I returned home again

Where ever I go, you are always there

Smiling, laughing, holding my hand, no matter where

At night I still reach out and call your name

Yet always the unwanted smothering silence, again and again

I seek you everywhere but only fleeting blurred images appear

There are times when the dark loneliness creeps so very near

Yet always I gather strength when I believe you are close by

It is then, my beautiful one, I ask the question “why?”

Although I grieve and long to be with you, here or there

There is always the comfort of the deepest love we did share

The sweetest memories of hand in hand, facing life together

It will suffice until that door opens and I’m with you again, forever

George Mansford © March 2017