When I Was Seventeen Poem by Maarten Peeters

When I was seventeen
I had a sweet dream
It was about you
You were so fine
I wanted to make you mine.
But I was too shy
To step out of the shade
I was too scared
To face you like a man
A man I wished to be
For a girl like you.

A girl like you
And a man like me
Could walk on clouds
Touch the sky
And be free of this world.
But then I saw
The man I wished to be
Was not me but him
With a girl like you
And I was left standing
Like the boy I was.

Now after all these years
I am still not that man
The man I wished to be
And you are no longer that girl
But a woman you grew to be.
And I am still left standing
But no longer alone
Nor with you
For I found the girl to make me mine
And the boy I used to be
Became a better man I thought I could be.