Lines To A Sunburned Girl In A White Dress Poem by jim hogg

I worshipped at a distance:
you and I were in our teens.
The girlfriend of a good friend;
it stayed that way for years.

I built myself a wall of ways
to keep you out of bounds.
A wall so high my love for you
could never quite break out.

But bittersweetly day by day
while you loved someone else
we gradually began to know
each other pretty well.

In sober times or drunken times,
on land or out at sea,
we never crossed the line
that separated you from me.

By then we'd quit the school,
and you'd come up to Eldon Street.
His bed was just across the room:
that made it hard to sleep!

Then changes came. They always do.
Our lives were thrust apart.
And both of us soon settled down,
to make another start -

until we met in Miller's bar
and all that hinterland
crashed thrillingly around us,
though I didn't understand.

But you were tied and I was tied
and that was my excuse
though both of us were just an inch
away from breaking loose.

That night outside the Old Mill lounge
I left it all unsaid,
but no-one ever loved me quite
the way you loved me then.

And later by the golf course lane
I couldn't say what's true:
I've never wanted anyone
more than I wanted you;

And so, of course, I walked away,
and lived some kind of life.
I heard about you now and then,
but never took the time

to sort amongst the crumbling past,
and get the story straight.
Now here you are, still woven through,
the pieces that remain

I saw you only one more time
in all those years between.
We gazed into each other's eyes
across a Glasgow street.

and then we turned, without a word,
and went our separate ways.