If I Loved You...

I'd dream of you, darling.

Warm dreams, rose petal soft

With the smell of baking bread

Wafting through the still image,

The tiny little fairy tale of love.

.

If I loved you, then I might

Drink the fantasy hiding

In glittering tears trailing down

My own face, a reflection now

In a pool of stagnant grief.

.

If I loved you, I would ache

At the sight of every prism,

Weep at the touch of every

Cool summer night damp

With fading memories.

.

I would suffer, wouldn't I,

If all I had were incorporeal gifts,

Decorating the mental mantle

Surrounding a long-dead fire.

I'd suffer if I lived with your ghost.

.

I'm glad to have never loved you.

I am elated at the empty loss.

Meaningless, mindless, romance.

Yes, better to have never loved you

Than to die by the weight of longing.