Not With Each Other

When Lisa called, I answered without knowing

Exactly where the ensuing talk would go.

She had expected my voicemail, was slow

To answer my hello, but quickly owing

To my ease, she told me she found a note

In Ryan's book, a book I left when leaving.

It was my father's, and I knew I wrote

"Without hate, without violence," a quote

She did not need to tell me, for I knew

The book and what I wrote, and it was true.

She thanked me for that, for all I had done,

For being the man I am, and wished me well.

I said, You're welcome, wishing her well, too.

Take care, she said. I knew when she was gone

Some good was left in the ending, after all.

Little considerations of love live on.

Yet I do not regret the end, believing

Feelings derive from lives apart before

We met, our passion a product of our lives

Alone, colliding with another for

Reasons unnoted, only a scrap survives.

Our conflicts now seem small, compared to love

Left without thought, scraps not worth thinking of.

However, together it was another matter;

The little things were great; good times now better.

So here I leave again, more certain now,

Both of us will be more in love somehow.

                                                                             KLK

                                                                             02/13/05