Total Recall Poem

TOTAL RECALL by Paul Wagner Jan/Feb 2005

Roses are red and violets are blue
I went to the corner and waited for you

You had said we would meet and go for a treat
I felt charged, as I waited, with emotions replete

The promise of friendship, perhaps something more
Had sent my mind soaring, rich dreams to explore

For years I had languished, alone in the crowd
Unsure of myself, self-conscious and proud

Yearning and wishing and praying to find
Someone who’d accept me, not treat me unkind

Someone to share with me times good and bad
Share laughs when I’m happy, tears when I’m sad

Somebody, like me, who knows what it means
To be desperately lonely and driven by dreams

Would you be that one? I’d let myself wonder
Or is this a mistake, another sad blunder?

So much crossed my mind as I waited for you
A million bright flashes, and some that were blue

At five minutes past the hour we had set,
My thoughts skittered nervously, scared and upset

At ten past, it worsened and doubts became thick
Were you injured or kidnapped, unconscious or sick?

Finally, one hour after waiting in vain
I stood there forlorn as it started to rain

And stared with self-pity, down at my feet
Where my dreams lay like puddles of rain in the street

In time, people say, you will heal and forget
There will just be a scar, a nameless regret

You can see from this poem, they’re not always right
Some mem’ries, like granite, endure come what might

I haven’t forgotten—not one whit of the scene
Of that time I was "stood up" when I was 13.