Just A Quiet Summer Afternoon Poem by Richard Quinby

Just a quiet summer afternoon
Easy comfortable conversation
Two old friends
Catching up on each others lives
Touching only in passing,
And lightly,
On the past they had shared.

Did they think
Their worlds so different
And needs so
Changed?
That the passing years
Had faded passion
Like a photograph
Left too long in the sun?


When he leaned in to kiss her cheek
Was it her loneliness and longing
That turned her lips to his?
Was it his emptiness and needing
That stretched and deepened his kiss?

If the hour had not been so late
If home and family had not called.
Would she have stayed?
And in each other’s
Arms could they have
For one quiet summer afternoon
Found comfort in forgetting
And release in remembering?
Touching only in passing,
And lightly,
On the past they had shared.

9/01/05