Love's Changes Poem by Barry Middleton

Love is everlasting.
When you truly are in love,
it never goes away.
But it may surely change,
yet not to apathy.
When love betrays,
it turns to pain,
and anger,
even hate.
When love is unrequited,
it simmers like regret,
not quite the burning flame
it might have been.
But still we feel its warmth
in moments we remember.
And that we call a longing,
an ache like hunger left unfed.
And should this linger,
unfulfilled for many years,
it may become despair.