Salut

Salut (Hello)

He never said it, nor did I

Yet I knew his name

And he knew mine

Ca va?  (How it going?)

Took us two months to ask

A mutual lack of courage

But when our eyes met, it was

Belle (beautiful)

Those baby blue irises

He knew me, I could see

And I needed to know him

Parlé (spoke)

That French class made it so difficult

Getting lost in those possessive adjectives

Was he mine?

Embrasser (to embrace)

Four months after the salut

Outside my doorway in the dark

He wished me a

Bon nuit (good night)

and I feared the worst

because he was finishing school

and I had just begun

La fin (the end)

We lost sight of it

Lost, in each other’s arms

Lost, in each other’s sheets

L’été (the summer)

Soft and gentle

Came and left

Like a swift breeze

On a warm night

That blew my hair back

Au revoir (good bye)

To leave too soon

With only a flavor of what was

And what could have been

So soon and yet

So sweet