Brigid, we parted one February,
an ending for us as the swelling of spring began.
Your name was not Brigid;
the Irvines were lowland Scots, after all,
but you resembled that Irish princess
with the auburn hair, the green eyes,
that cover of the paperback you had lent me
which had entranced me so.
What is it about chemistry?
Or is it music, the way cello and violin
complement one another?
Does the body reflect the soul,
or is flesh mere pretense to mask the true intention?
Things are clearer now —
weren’t we in love with love?
So much easier to bear than with each other,
where loss, pain and misery are set off,
the ticking time bomb of this duality.
And I didn’t say… but I saw you the other day,
older, wiser, a family of your own
but with the same look in your eyes,
so green.
Brigid, though decades now separate us,
I am glad of our anonymity,
the memory of what love might be.
Copyright Francis 2021
***Written for Earth Weal Weekly Challenge regarding Imbolc.
The Elloe Recorder 
Oh, young love – I like the fact that you remember the emotion here, but not the details, and yet the half-remembered details tell us so much about that lost love.
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Brigid goes on, whatever we call her. I like this revisiting of youthful love and the observation that maybe it was all for the best.
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Thank you, Jane!
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Of course a love poem for Imbolc, for the Brigit who brides in our eyes. So sweet and fair the yearning here. – Brendan
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Thank you 🙏
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“the memory of what love might be.” It is amazing to see someone from our past in their new life, but still with that same look in their eyes. Sigh. Lovely, this poem.
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Thank you!
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A beautiful love poem to Brigid and Imbold, Francis! I love ‘an ending for us as the swelling of spring began’, ‘Or is it music, the way cello and violin complement one another?’ and the alliteration of ‘the ticking time bomb of this duality’. The final lines evoke a familiar feeling in me.
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Thank you 🙏🏻
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This is very moving – the expression of emotions comes across so powerfully and beautifully.
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These memories linger and color everything we do afterwards. (K)
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Oh, this is a truly wonderful poem. I too love “an ending for us as the swelling of spring began”. But the whole poem works together so well.
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Bless you! Thank you so much
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