Akiko's Novel: Love In The Time Of Cholera Poem by Dennis Ryan

Wednesday morning, March 15,2023

He gave Akiko a novel she claims
she will never read; but she will read
it in time; this much is sure; it contains
his written notes; and she fancies him,
the way she looks at him, but claims
the novel has no pragmatic value for her;
he knows otherwise, as will she in time—
she need grow more into life in the meanwhile.
When love's next opportunity stares her in the face,
hopefully she will know it—it will be then, or soon after,
that she turns the first page, think of him, only
to realize she had lost her first opportunity.