Your Letters

Rummaging through a box

I found the letters that you wrote.

More than thirty years

have passed but your words

still have the power to emote.

Pages full of memories that

bring a lump to my throat,

I had once said that to you

my life I would devote.

For a while you were

content with my devotion,

until you fell for a stranger

and with him crossed the ocean.

You left my heart

in pieces upon the floor

as I waited years for you

to walk back through the door.

You never did return,

instead you sent these letters

telling me of your sadness

that you could not make things better.

That stranger that you

ran away it wasn’t who he said,

instead he was an alcoholic

with a foul temper who beat

you until you were dead.