If We Go Poem by Hal Caufield

I will not go away, you know.
Oh sure, if you dispatch me,
With one word I will go.
But you cannot drink or think,
Or with time hope me away, I know.

You can inbibe a world
Of the sweetest grapes,
But you will never wash me away
With nectar of this earth.
You can wiled away hours
Thinking of anything but me,
But you will never forget me
With thoughts or other loves.
You can watch the days, years
Even decades come and go,
But I will not, and this you know,
With time dissolve from life's memory.

I know all this and even more.
Because try as I may
I know you will never go.
In years to come you will be with me
And I with you,
Not as Keats nightingale,
But as you are here tonight,
Infinite eyes, red dress, ivory skin
And tender hopeful words.
Because many years from now
We will either sit together
An older couple holding hands
On some secluded romantic bench,
Or in our waning years
We will reminisce,
You in your world
And I in mine,
Of what could have been.
Either way one thing is certain,
You and I will never go.