I Was Paris and You Were New York

“Café Terrace at Night” –– Vincent Van Gogh

We drank our coffee with starlight caramel,

and summer’s sweet air of mystique.

Quietly painted with twilight we were

oblivious to the last sigh of romance

hung from a moon rushing toward September.

Caught in a spell of passion we ignored

each pearl of warm days would eventually

succumb to the chill of separation.

We never spoke, “I love you” or “forever”.

I was Paris and you were New York.

The world was too large, the sea too wide

for us to have more than a summer. 

Now in the silver of my days I dream of you,

and tenderly shuffle through my soul’s photographs

wondering if you remember me. 

©Susie Clevenger 2023