The One That Got Away Poem by Michael Anthony Hernandez

I was staggered by her robust embrace
“…what has it been, twenty, twenty-five years? ”

she still,
Developed
the flooding memories of
all those years ago
my initial attraction

apparently she has forgotten
or failed to recall
my unreturned
affection
calls and letters
her desperate pleas
I so easily dismissed

I being then
in a different place
a different man
a different time
openly sharing myself with
other developed ones

yes of course I too have evolved over time
I tell myself
preferring the vineyards over the taverns and developed bars
bistros and cuisines trumping greasy spoon reservations
big boy agendas versus one-night stand associations
I tell myself

but she unmistakably
evolved
out-classed
socially seasoned beyond my depths
she
resenting or harboring no ill-will against me

rather she
embraced the memory of
what was and never was
and the folly of her heart
time reflecting
time compartmentalizing
me
as merely the one
who deemed her unworthy

time would in return
exchange me for a gentlemen
who would take her
and all her developments
and tenderly coddle her
inch by supple inch
investing in the whom I could not
to gain her forever

she walks away
into the rest of her happily-ever after me

I still, clearly unattached
at least not by law
with my reservations for one
maybe for two at the eleventh hour

“…it was good to see you too”