Donna

My friends would never leave her be each passed and gave her a wink One could see, it was not to be it was driving me to drink.

Donna at 40

She was so stunning in her youth

my breath ran short when we met

She caught my eye, and with a sigh

had left me in a cold sweat

__________________

I pursued her relentlessly

'til finally she gave in

A beautiful mind,what a find

a cross of beauty and sin

_________________

My friends would never leave her be

each passed by her with a wink

One could see, it was not to be

it was driving me to drink

_________________

Adoration grew in my chest

but time told a different tale

We had distressed, what beauty blessed

as in time our love grew stale

_________________

"You're too much woman to be fair

I can see that now so clear

Such beauty's rare, a cross to bear

I have to let go my dear"

____________________

We're  beauty for a fleeting day

that fades with the loss of youth

Forget and may, upon us weigh

the merciless pains of truth

Author's Note

I was Donna's friend many years after that.When we broke up I had injured myself so badly I wondered if I would recover. We met now and then in Louisville where I once raced and called my home. I remember telling her that children would help her in old age. But to her defense she was so intoxicating at 21, I wouldn't have listened to me either. She had lost her boyfriend when I last met her at 40 and had no children. Still beautiful but injured like the first time you make a child cry. Her own parents were very old by then. My heart bled for her. For truth be known I had loved her since the day we met. That was 10 years ago. I haven't heard from her but once since. Yet fresh in my mind as if yesterday I remember her wounded. How it cut me so deep I cried! Hers was the eternal beauty of Cleopatra, both inward and outward her light shone bright. I had been blessed to be her friend.
I adored her father and mother as well. It was easy to see where her beauty came from.

Reviews

[David Lewis Paget]

It takes courage to renounce the thing you want most. I doubt if I could have done it, Tate, which necessarily meant that in my life, I was the one left, never the one to leave. You had the foresight to avoid the pain of future indiscretions, though you didn't get off scot free. There is always the needle of nostalgia to aggravate the wound.

[N!LoC]

wow its like a story and poem all in one! and that vonda shepard song is one of my all time fav songs...

[Tate Morgan]

Thanks i am experimenting more and more with narrative poetry

[Dayran]

We are sometimes given the opportunity to go all the way with our feel of the issues. To those who may have already known love and family, it presents an opportunity to find something new and I figure she might have in some way ... if she had been honest to herself on the issues. On occasions such as this we find that beauty may be more than skin deep.

[Tate Morgan]

Donna was as beautiful inside as she was on the outside.She wasn't my problem directly .My friends were so intoxicated with her they would wear her down if I kept her.And one day we would fail

[Dayran]

How would you friends wear her down? If that's not an indelicate question ...

[Tate Morgan]

AT 21 yrs old It is much harder to say no than it is at my age now.Add to that she didnt want children and you have the answer

[patricia]

as always the true talent comes out in your author notes. Though the idea of age being a negative time here leaves me begging to differ. I caught your idea of her being too much of a woman...those types in both men and women are always larger than life. Not everyone is destined for family life, it isnt always a failure to choose that path. Building a future while one is young? well...a person has to grow into maturity before they can be ready for such things...most things like that are learned from experience, it is rare when a person is open to advice. The self revelation in your poem are quite touching, the fear of being driven to drink, the realisation you have to let some people go, the jealousy in the sixth stanza that you chose not to work through. Nice work Tate. Enjoyed.

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you Donna and I were star crossed lovers .But i was as much trouble as she was. I just noticed it before she did .So I stepped off that wave and rode alone.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

" Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything's okay and everythings going alright" Alanis Morrissette from "Ironic"

(Beauty and youth are fading flowers; bright fragrant blossoms that burst for but hours...Wisdom and truth are mighty oak trees rooted in justice so lay claim to these.) Fabian Old flames have a tendency to lay in embers a long time...but we can't go playing with fire without expecting to get our fingers burned. A tender write Tate.

[Tate Morgan]

I should have told her as I told my own daughter .Be an Oak and ash a fir a willow tree that breezes stir.No matter what you choose to be you'll always be a part of me

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Tate you are such a loving and caring guy. Rare breed. This is a sad tale but flecked with the jewels of love. A nice piece of pathos.

[Tate Morgan]

I tend to take a liking to people .If i fall in love I love them forever .Or at least until they tell me to not

[Coyote Poetry]

With the new facebook. Old friends are returning. Even with great distance. Communication is alive again. Funny how life can change. Like you said in the poem. Beauty stay with us a short time. I enjoyed the description of a old memory and how life can end up. Thank you for the excellent poem.
Coyote

[Tate Morgan]

Coyote it is always with angst that we look back and say what if? But I knew I couldn't stand all my friends hounding her .And what woman doesn't want to be the center of that attention?

[外人 (Gaiji..]

Beautiful, reads quite well, I'm sorry, man :(

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you very much.I am sure Donna manged she is a survivor