green eyes

by Jan Oscar Hansen

      How can I forget her, eyes green as spring water cascading down
a mountainside in Norway. Her skin silky as a morning cloud in June
and her laughter was like chuckling pearls of joyfulness.

So many festivities, wine and song, it took time before I noticed
anything was wrong. Rages; tears of melancholy, lover of the night.

I became a spectator to a slow downfall. Eddy of too much living,
I could not go there, I had my own demons to battle.

How rapid her fall, a woman every man could have and I cursed my
eternal cowardice. At her funeral, I spoke to her mother, we cried for
a beautiful woman we both loved, but were not able to save.