Time So Wonderfully Cruel Poem by sam furman

I’d spent my life just searching for
The one who’d touch my soul
To give my life a purpose
To share a higher goal

And I so young & foolish
Thought I had met my mate
Soon learned the yearning had not gone
By then it was too late

The vows I took became an anchor
That weighed upon my heart
Though many times I tried to rouse
A fire that would not start

So over time I learned to stem
My feelings and desires
Accepting choices I had made
With no regret or ire

When I met you, I could not guess
My outlook would revise
The latent passions deep inside
Would soon take wing & rise

But time is cruel, so wonderfully cruel
And our differences so immense
My life of bills and house and kids
And yours not yet so tense

Through passing days of close confine
Came growing admiration
The fates laid down the groundwork for
A budding fascination

Each glance, each giggle, each silly song
We shared from time to time
Brought back a feeling I thought lost
In chasms of my mind

And there were times, or so it seemed
That you too shared this feeling
But reigning fears could not be swayed
They kept you from revealing

And so this too I must suppress;
Must keep at distant bay
For hopes that I would have the chance
To state my love someday

But time is not my friend of late
How wonderfully cruel it be
For once a life of service filled
Will the one I love, love me?

My time these days consists of you
Inhabiting my thoughts
And when I close my eyes at night
My dreams with you are wrought

Your auburn hair, your crooked smile
And what makes the you I love
Were fashioned by a greater force;
I must yield to the Lord above

So in His great eternal plan
If we were meant to be
Someday I hope reveals itself
And you can be with me

And though I wish to break this pact,
To tell you would be wrong
For you have lived a moral life
Your faith, it has been strong

You see, I can’t corrupt my love
And “friends” we’ll be in strife
Now time remains just wonderfully cruel
For at least you’re in my life.